miRNA fingerprint in the diagnosis of diseases

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides novel methods for diagnosing a state of health based on the determination of specific miRNAs that have altered expression levels in different conditions, e.g. disease states compared to healthy controls.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a 35 U.S.C. 371 National Phase Entry Application from PCT/EP2010/057944, filed Jun. 7, 2010, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Applications Nos. 61/184,452 filed Jun. 5, 2009, 61/213,971 filed Aug. 3, 2009, 61/287,521 filed Dec. 17, 2009 and European Patent Application No. 09015668.8 filed on Dec. 17, 2009, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are a recently discovered class of small non-coding RNAs (17-14 nucleotides). Due to their function as regulators of gene expression they play a critical role both in physiological and in pathological processes, such as cancer (Calin and Croce 2006; Esquela-Kerscher and Slack 2006; Zhang, Pan et al. 2007; Sassen, Miska et al. 2008).

There is increasing evidence that miRNAs are not only found in tissues but also in human blood both as free circulating nucleic acids (also called circulating miRNAs) and in mononuclear cells. A recent proof-of-principle study demonstrated miRNA expression pattern in pooled blood sera and pooled blood cells, both in healthy individuals and in cancer patients including patients with lung cancer (Chen, Ba et al. 2008). In addition, a remarkable stability of miRNAs in human sera was recently demonstrated (Chen, Ba et al. 2008; Gilad, Meiri et al. 2008). These findings make miRNA a potential tool for diagnostics for various types of diseases based on blood analysis.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide (Jemel, Siegel et al. 2008). Its five-year survival rate is among the lowest of all cancer types and is markedly correlated to the stage at the time of diagnosis (Scott, Howington et al. 2007). Using currently existing techniques, more than two-thirds of lung cancers are diagnosed at late stages, when the relative survival rate is low (Henschke and Yankelevitz 2008). This reality calls for the search of new biomarkers that are able to catch lung cancer while it is still small and locally defined.

Multiple sclerosis (MS, also known as disseminated sclerosis or encephalomyelitis disseminata) is an inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Causing MS appears to be a combination of immunological, genetic and environmental factors. It is a chronic demyelinating disease, which primarily affects young adults and is characterized by a highly variable course. The heterogeneous presentation of MS is characterized by a variety of clinical problems arising from multiple regions of demyelination and inflammation along axonal pathways. The signs and symptoms of MS are determined by the location of the affected regions.

Mostly, the disease begins in the third or fourth decade of life. Its initial course is characterized by acute episodes of neurological dysfunction, such as decreased vision, followed by subsequent recovery. This course is known as relapsing-remitting MS. Over time, the improvement after attacks may be incomplete and the relapsing-remitting course may evolve into one of increasing progression of disability, termed secondary progressive MS.

The diagnosis of MS generally relies on the presence of a neurological problem that remits and then returns at an unrelated site. This is confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or functional evidence of lesions in a particular pathway by abnormal evoked potentials. The histological hallmark of MS at postmortem exam is multiple lesions at different sites showing loss of myelin and infiltration by a characteristic complement of inflammatory cells.

The key to identifying predictive markers is a deeper understanding of the factors that underlie the therapeutic response. Identification of biomarkers will in turn allow for stratification of MS patients for their response to a specific treatment, ultimately leading to improved therapeutic benefits and a personalized treatment approach for MS patients.

Identification of reliable biomarkers in MS sclerosis patients bears the potential for an improved MS diagnosis, monitoring the disease activity and progression and also to evaluate response to treatments. The field of biomarker discovery has gradually shifted from the aim to find the perfect surrogate marker to the construction of composite markers with higher performances, taking advantage of technologies allowing unbiased screening, including microarray analyses. However, suitable biomarker sets allowing for a non-invasive diagnosis of MS based on peripheral profiles have not been detected, so far.

The three most common skin cancers are basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer, and melanoma, each of which is named after the type of skin cell from which it arises. Skin cancer generally develops in the epidermis (the outermost layer of skin), so a tumor is usually clearly visible. This makes most skin cancers detectable in the early stages. Melanoma is less common than basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, but it is the most serious. Non-melanoma skin cancers are the most common skin cancers, and the majority of these are basal cell carcinomas (BCC). These are usually localized growths caused by excessive cumulative exposure to the sun and do not tend to spread. Basal cell carcinomas are present on sun-exposed areas of the skin, especially the face. They rarely metastasize, and rarely cause death. They are easily treated with surgery or radiation. Squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) are common, but much less common than basal cell cancers. They metastasize more frequently than BCCs. Even then, the metastasis rate is quite low, with the exception of SCCs of the lip, ear, and in immunosuppressed patients. Melanomas are the least frequent of the 3 common skin cancers. They frequently metastasize, and are deadly once spread.

Malignant melanoma represent the most aggressive form of skin cancer. The number of melanoma cases continues to increase in incidence, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) faster than that of any other type of cancer. Melanoma accounts for about 4% of skin cancer cases but for as many as 74% of all skin cancer deaths. The probability of surviving 5 years after the diagnosis drops to as low as 5% for advanced melanomas, or to even complete fatality (stage IV).

Currently, there is no promising standard therapy available for the treatment of melanomas in advanced stages. In order to improve prognosis and have a significant impact on decreasing mortality rates it is crucial to recognize this malignancy in its earliest forms. Considering metastasis to distinct organs happens very early in the progression of this disease, current research focuses on the development and improvement of early detection strategies. Only early surgical removal of the primary tumor increases the chance for the recovery of patients suffering from melanoma.

Thus, although various markers have been proposed to indicate specific types of disorders such as cancer, MS or melanoma such as malignant melanoma, there is still a need for more efficient and effective methods and compositions for the diagnosis of diseases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides novel methods for diagnosing diseases based on the determination of specific miRNAs that have altered expression levels in disease states compared to healthy controls or altered expression levels in a condition 1 (biological state or health state 1) compared to a condition 2 (biological state or health state 2).

Further, the present invention provides novel methods for diagnosing diseases based on the determination of specific miRNAs that have altered expression levels in disease states compared to healthy or other relevant controls. The present invention particularly provides novel methods for the diagnosis and/or prognosis and/or monitoring of melanoma or related diseases in human individuals based on miRNA analysis from samples derived from blood.

DEFINITIONS

miRNA

microRNAs (miRNA or μRNA) are single-stranded RNA molecules of ˜21-23 nucleotides in length, which regulate gene expression. miRNAs are encoded by genes from whose DNA they are transcribed but miRNAs are not translated into protein (i.e. they are non-coding RNAs). The genes encoding miRNAs are much longer than the processed mature miRNA molecule; miRNAs are first transcribed as primary transcripts or pri-miRNA with a cap and poly-A tail and processed to short, 70-nucleotide stem-loop structures known as pre-miRNA in the cell nucleus. This processing is performed in animals by a protein complex known as the Microprocessor complex, consisting of the nuclease Drosha and the double-stranded RNA binding protein Pasha. These pre-miRNAs are then processed to mature miRNAs in the cytoplasm by interaction with the endonuclease Dicer, which also initiates the formation of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). When Dicer cleaves the pre-miRNA stem-loop, two complementary short RNA molecules are formed, but only one is integrated into the RISC. This strand is known as the guide strand and is selected by the argonaute protein, the catalytically active RNase in the RISC, on the basis of the stability of the 5′ end. The remaining strand, known as the miRNA*, anti-guide or passenger strand, is degraded as a RISC substrate. Therefore the miRNA*s are derived from the same hairpin structure like the “normal” miRNAs. So if the “normal” miRNA is then later called the “mature miRNA” or “guided strand”, the miRNA* is the passenger strand.

miRNA* (See Also Above “miRNA”)

The miRNA*s, also known as the anti-guide or passenger strand, are mostly complementary to the guide strand, but there are usually single-stranded overhangs on each end, there is usually one or a few mispairs and there are sometimes extra or missing bases causing single-stranded “bubbles. The miRNA*s are likely to act in a regulatory fashion as the miRNAs.

It is understood that according to the present invention the term “miRNA” also includes the term “miRNA*”.

MiRNA-(Expression) Profile or miRNA Fingerprint

A miRNA-Profile represents the collection of expression levels of a plurality of miRNAs, therefore it is a quantitative measure of individual miRNA expression levels. Hereby, each miRNA is represented by a numerical value. The higher the value of an individual miRNA the higher is the expression level of this miRNA. A miRNA-profile is obtained from the RNA of a biological sample. The are various technologies to determine a miRNA-Profile, e.g. microarrays, RT-PCR, Next Generation Sequencing. As a starting material for analysis, RNA or total-RNA or any fraction thereof can be used. The plurality of miRNAs that are determined by a miRNA-profile can range from a selection of one up to all known miRNAs.

Pre-Determined Set of miRNAs or miRNA Signature

The pre-determined set of miRNAs or miRNA signature is understood in the present invention as a fixed defined set of miRNAs which is able to differentiate between a condition 1 and another condition 2. e.g. when condition 1 is lung cancer and condition 2 is normal control, the corresponding pre-determined set of miRNAs is able to differentiate between a samples derived from a lung cancer patient or a normal control patient. Alternatively, condition 1 is lung cancer and condition 2 is multiple sclerosis, the corresponding pre-determined set of miRNAs is able to differentiate between a lung cancer patient and a multiple sclerosis patient. In order to be able to perform the sample analysis it is required that, e.g. on the matrix that will be used to determine a miRNA profile, these fixed defined set of miRNAs have to be represented by capture probes that are defined by the pre-determined set of miRNAs. For example, when the predetermined set of miRNAs for diagnosing lung cancer from healthy controls consists of 25 miRNAs, probes capable for detecting these 25 miRNAs have to be implemented for performing the diagnostic analysis.

Common miRNA Signature Profile

A common miRNA signature profile is understood in the present invention as a non-fixed defined set of miRNAs or non-coding RNAs which is able to differentiate between a condition 1 and another condition 2. The common miRNA or non-coding RNA signature profile is calculated “on-the-fly” from a plurality of miRNA-profiles that are stored, e.g. in database. The common miRNA signature profile which is able to differentiate between a condition 1 and another condition 2 is changing as soon as an new profile is added to the database which is relevant to either to state of health 1 or another condition 2. In this respect it is different from a predetermined set of miRNAs (see above). Furthermore, the basis for generating the common miRNA signature profile—hence the miRNA profiles stored in the database—is generated from capture probes, e.g. on a matrix that is representing as much as possible different capture probes for detecting as much as possible, ideally all known, miRNAs.

Non-Coding RNA

A non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is a functional RNA molecule that is not translated into a protein. Less-frequently used synonyms are non-protein-coding RNA (npcRNA), non-messenger RNA (nmRNA), small non-messenger RNA (snmRNA), functional RNA (fRNA). The term small RNA (sRNA) is often used for bacterial ncRNAs. The DNA sequence from which a non-coding RNA is transcribed as the end product is often called an RNA gene or non-coding RNA gene.

Non-coding RNA genes include highly abundant and functionally important RNAs such as transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA), as well as RNAs such as snoRNAs, microRNAs, siRNAs and piRNAs and the long ncRNAs that include examples such as Xist and HOTAIR (see here for a more complete list of ncRNAs). The number of ncRNAs encoded within the human genome is unknown, however recent transcriptomic and bioinformatic studies suggest the existence of thousands of ncRNAs. Since most of the newly identified ncRNAs have not been validated for their function, it is possible that many are non-functional.

Condition

A condition (biological state or health state) is understood in the present invention as status of a subject that can be described by physical, mental or social criteria. It includes as well so-called “healthy” and “diseased” conditions, therefore it is not limited to the WHO definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” but includes disease and infirmity. For the definition of diseases comprised, e.g. by the conditions of the present invention, it is referred to the international classification of diseases (ICD) of the WHO (http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/index.html). When 2 or more conditions are compared according to the present invention, it is understood that this is possible for all conditions that can be defined and is not limited to a comparison of a disease versus healthy and extends to multi-way comparisons. Examples for comparison are, but not limited to:

Pairwise Comparisons:

-   -   lung cancer vs. healthy control, pancreatic cancer vs. healthy         control     -   lung cancer vs. pancreatic cancer, lung cancer vs. multiple         sclerosis     -   lung cancer WHO grade 1 vs. lung cancer WHO grade 2     -   lung cancer WHO grade 1 metastasing vs. lung cancer WHO grade 1         non-metastasing     -   Morbus Crohn vs. collitis     -   Pancreatic cancer vs. pancreatitis         Multi-Way Comparisons:     -   Lung cancer vs. pancreatic cancer vs. multiple sclerosis     -   Pancreas cancer vs. pancreatitis vs. lung cancer WHO grade 1         non-metastasing

A “biological sample” in terms of the invention means a sample of biological tissue or fluid. Examples of biological samples are sections of tissues, blood, blood fractions, plasma, serum, urine or samples from other peripheral sources, or cell cultures, cell colonies of even single cells, or a collection of single cells. Furthermore, also pools or mixture of the above mentioned samples may be employed. A biological sample may be provided by removing a sample of cells from a subject, but can also be provided by using a previously isolated sample. For example, a tissue sample can be removed from a subject suspected of having a disease by conventional biopsy techniques. In a preferred embodiment, a blood sample is taken from the subject. In one embodiment, the blood or tissue sample is obtained from the subject prior to initiation of radiotherapy, chemotherapy or other therapeutic treatment. According to the invention, the biological sample preferably is a blood, plasma or PBMC (peripheral blood mononuclear cell) or a serum sample. Further, it is also preferred to use blood cells, e.g. PBMC, erythrocytes, leukocytes or thrombocytes.

A biological sample from a patient means a sample from a subject suspected to be affected by a disease, or is at risk, or has the disease. As used herein, the term “subject” refers to any mammal, including both human and other mammals. Preferably, the methods of the present invention are applied to human subjects.

Subject-matter of the invention is a method for diagnosing a disease, particularly skin cancer such as melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, or squamous cell carcinoma, or related diseases comprising the steps

-   (a) determining an expression profile of a predetermined set of     miRNAs in a biological sample from a patient; and -   (b) comparing said expression profile to a reference expression     profile,     wherein the comparison of said determined expression profile to said     reference expression profile allows for the diagnosis of the     disease.

In step (a) of the above method of the invention, an expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs is determined. The determination may be carried out by any convenient means for determining nucleic acids. For expression profiling, qualitative, semi-quantitative and preferably quantitative detection methods can be used. A variety of techniques are well known to those of skill in the art. In particular, the determination may comprise nucleic acid hybridization and/or nucleic acid amplification steps.

Nucleic acid hybridization may for example be performed using a solid phase nucleic acid biochip array, in particular a microarray, beads, or in situ hybridization. The miRNA microarray technology affords the analysis of a complex biological sample for all expressed miRNAs. Nucleotides with complementarity to the corresponding miRNAs are spotted or synthesized on coated carriers. E.g. miRNAs isolated from the sample of interest are labelled, e.g. fluorescently labelled, so that upon hybridization of the miRNAs to the complementary sequences on the carrier the resulting signal indicates the occurrence of a distinct miRNA. Preferably, microarray methods are employed that do not require labeling of the miRNAs prior to hybridization (FIGS. 3-4) and start directly from total RNA input. On one miRNA microarray, preferably the whole predetermined set of miRNAs can be analyzed. Even more preferably a predetermined subset of miRNAs leading to sufficient performance (e.g. accuracy, specificity, sensitivity) regarding diagnosis of the disease/clinical condition may be analyzed. Examples of preferred hybridization assays are shown in FIGS. 1-4. The design of exemplary miRNA capture probes for use in hybridization assays is depicted in FIGS. 5 and 6.

Further, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) can be used to detect miRNAs or sets of miRNAs, especially very low abundant miRNAs. Furthermore, bead-based assays, e.g. the luminex platform are also suitable.

Alternative methods for obtaining expression profiles may also contain sequencing, next generation sequencing or mass spectroscopy.

The predetermined set of miRNAs in step (a) of the above method of the invention depends on the disease/clinical condition to be diagnosed. The inventors found out that single miRNA biomarkers lack sufficient accuracy, specificity and sensitivity, and therefore it is preferred to analyze more complex miRNA expression patterns, so-called miRNA signatures. The predetermined set of miRNAs comprises one or more, preferably a larger number of miRNAs (miRNA signatures) that are differentially regulated in samples of a patient affected by a particular disease compared to healthy or other relevant controls. In certain embodiments, e.g. wherein Luminex, RT-PCR or qRT-PCR are employed to measure the predetermined sets of miRNAs, it is preferred that smaller subsets, e.g. of from 3, 4 or 5 and up to 10, 20, 30 or 50 miRNAs are analyzed.

The expression profile determined in the above step (a) is subsequently compared to a reference expression profile in the above step (b). The reference expression profile is the expression profile of the same set of miRNAs in a biological sample originating from the same source as the biological sample from a patient but e.g. obtained from a healthy subject. Preferably, both the reference expression profile and the expression profile of the above step (a) are determined in a blood, plasma, or including whole blood, plasma, serum or fractions thereof, or in a sample of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, erythrocytes, leukocytes and/or thrombocytes. It is understood that the reference expression profile is not necessarily obtained from a single healthy subject but may be an average expression profile of a plurality of healthy subjects. It is preferred to use a reference expression profile obtained from a person of the same gender, and a similar age as the patient. It is also understood that the reference expression profile is not necessarily determined for each test. Appropriate reference profiles stored in databases may also be used. These stored reference profiles may, e.g. be derived from previous tests. The relevant reference profile may also be a mathematical function or an algorithm which has been developed on the basis of a plurality of reference profiles and allows a diagnosis.

The above method of the invention is suitable for diagnosing any diseases for which a differential expression of miRNAs compared to healthy or other relevant controls exists. In particular, the method may be used for diagnosing cancer including bladder cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, endometrium cancer, gastrointestinal stromal cancer, glioma, head- and neck cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, liver cancer, lung cancer, lymph node cancer, skin cancer such as melanoma or non-melanoma skin cancer, meninges cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreas cancer, prostate cancer, sarcoma, stomach cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, thymus cancer and Wilm's tumor. The diagnosis may comprise determining type, rate and/or stage of cancer. The course of the disease and the success of therapy such as chemotherapy may be monitored. The method of the invention provides a prognosis on the survivor rate and enables to determine a patient's response to drugs.

In addition to cancer, also different types of diseases may be diagnosed by means of the above method of the invention, if the disease state is correlated with a differential expression of miRNAs compared to a healthy control. For example the disease may be Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, melanoma, Morbus Crohn and cardiovascular diseases. The inventors found out that also these diseases are correlated with a specific expression profile of miRNAs.

The inventors succeeded in developing a generally applicable approach to arrive at miRNA signatures that are correlated with a particular disease. The general workflow is depicted in FIG. 9. In more detail, the following steps are accomplished:

1. miRNAs are extracted from a biological sample of a patient, preferably a blood or serum or urine sample or a sample comprising erythrocytes, leukocytes or thrombocytes, using suitable kits/purification methods. From these samples preferably the RNA-fraction is used for analysis. 2. The respective samples are measured using experimental techniques. These techniques include but are not restricted to:

-   -   Array based approaches     -   Real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction     -   bead based assays (e.g. Luminex)     -   Sequencing     -   Next Generation Sequencing     -   Mass Spectroscopy         3. Mathematical approaches are applied to gather information on         the value and the redundancy of single biomarkers. These methods         include, but are not restricted to:     -   basic mathematic approaches (e.g. Fold Quotients, Signal to         Noise ratios, Correlation)     -   statistical methods as hypothesis tests (e.g. t-test,         Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test), the Area under the Receiver         operator Characteristics Curve     -   Information Theory approaches, (e.g. the Mutual Information,         Cross-entropy)     -   Probability theory (e.g. joint and conditional probabilities)     -   Combinations and modifications of the previously mentioned         examples         4. The information collected in 3) are used to estimate for each         biomarker the diagnostic content or value. Usually, however,         this diagnostic value is too small to get a highly accurate         diagnosis with accuracy rates, specificities and sensitivities         beyond the 90% barrier.         Please note that the diagnostic content for our miRNAs can be         found in the attached Figures. These Figures include the miRNAs         with the sequences, the fold quotient, the mutual information         and the significance value as computed by a t-test.         5. Thus statistical learning/machine         learning/bioinformatics/computational approaches are applied to         define subsets of biomarkers that are tailored for the detection         of diseases. These techniques includes but are not restricted to     -   Wrapper subset selection techniques (e.g. forward step-wise,         backward step-wise, combinatorial approaches, optimization         approaches)     -   Filter subset selection methods (e.g. the methods mentioned in         3)     -   Principal Component Analysis     -   Combinations and modifications of such methods (e.g. hybrid         approaches)         6. The diagnostic content of each detected set can be estimated         by mathematical and/or computational techniques to define the         diagnostic information content of subsets.         7. The subsets, detected in step 5, which may range from only a         small number (at least two) to all measured biomarkers is then         used to carry out a diagnosis. To this end, statistical         learning/machine learning/bioinformatics/computational         approaches are applied that include but are not restricted to         any type of supervised or unsupervised analysis:     -   Classification techniques (e.g. naïve Bayes, Linear Discriminant         Analysis, Quadratic Discriminant Analysis Neural Nets, Tree         based approaches, Support Vector Machines, Nearest Neighbour         Approaches)     -   Regression techniques (e.g. linear Regression, Multiple         Regression, logistic regression, probit regression, ordinal         logistic regression ordinal Probit-Regression, Poisson         Regression, negative binomial Regression, multinomial logistic         Regression, truncated regression)     -   Clustering techniques (e.g. k-means clustering, hierarchical         clustering, PCA)     -   Adaptations, extensions, and combinations of the previously         mentioned approaches

The inventors surprisingly found out that the described approach yields in miRNA signatures that provide high diagnostic accuracy, specificity and sensitivity in the determination of diseases.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the disease to be determined is lung cancer, e.g. lung carcinoid, lung pleural mesothelioma or lung squamous cell carcinoma, in particular non-small cell lung carcinoma.

The inventors succeeded in determining miRNAs that are differentially regulated in samples from lung cancer patients as compared to healthy controls. A complete overview of all miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of lung cancer patients is provided in the tables shown in FIGS. 10A, 10B and 11A. In the tables shown in FIGS. 10A, 10B and 11A, the miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated are sorted in the order of their mutual information and in the order of their t-test significance as described in more detail below. Mutual information (MI) (Shannon, 1984) is an adequate measure to estimate the overall diagnostic information content of single biomarkers (Keller, Ludwig et al., 2006). According to the invention mutual information is considered as the reduction in uncertainty about the class labels “0” for controls and “1” for tumor samples due to the knowledge of the miRNA expression. The higher the value of the MI of a miRNA, the higher is the diagnostic content of the respective miRNA. The computation of the MI of each miRNA is explained in the experimental section below.

The miRNAs that provide the highest mutual information in samples from lung cancer patients compared to healthy controls are hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-23b, hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-527, hsa-miR-29a, hsa-let-7i, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-28-5p, hsa-miR-185*, hsa-miR-23a, hsa-miR-1914*, hsa-miR-29c, hsa-miR-505*, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-378, hsa-miR-29b, hsa-miR-604, hsa-miR-29b, hsa-let-7b, hsa-miR-299-3p, hsa-miR-423-3p, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-1909, hsa-let-7c, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-425, hsa-miR-93*, hsa-miR-665, hsa-miR-30e, hsa-miR-339-3p, hsa-miR-1307, hsa-miR-625*, hsa-miR-193a-5p, hsa-miR-130b, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-574-5p, hsa-miR-324-3p (group (a)).

Further, the measured miRNA profiles in samples from lung cancer patients compared to healthy controls were classified according to their significance in t-tests as described in more detail in the experimental section. The miRNAs that performed best according to the t-test results are hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-574-5p, hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7f, hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-339-5p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-26b, hsa-miR-604, hsa-miR-423-3p, hsa-miR-93* (group (b)). A comparison of a subset of 15 of these miRNAs is depicted in FIG. 12.

The miRNAs given above that have been grouped in the order of their performance in the t-tests or in the order of their MI-values provide the highest diagnostic power. Thus, preferably the predetermined set of miRNAs for the diagnosis of lung cancer comprises one or more nucleic acids selected from the above groups (a) and (b) of miRNAs. The predetermined set of miRNAs should preferably comprise at least 7, preferably at least 10, 15, 20 or 24 of the indicated nucleic acids. Most preferably, all of the above indicated miRNAs are included in the predetermined set of miRNAs. It is particularly preferred to include the 24, 20, 15, 10 or at least 7 of the first mentioned miRNAs in the order of their performance in the t-tests or of their MI-values. A comparison of the results obtained by determining 4, 8, 10, 16, 20, 24, 28 or 40 miRNAs provided in FIG. 13A-G shows that the accuracy of the diagnosis is improved, the more miRNAs are measured.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the method of the invention, the predetermined set of miRNAs for diagnosis of lung cancer includes the miRNAs hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-574-5p, hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7f, hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-339-5p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-18a* and hsa-miR-26b.

In a further particularly preferred embodiment of the method of the invention, the miRNAs are selected from the miRNAs shown in FIG. 11A. Preferably, the predetermined set of miRNAs for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis comprises one or more nucleic acids selected from the deregulated miRNAs presented in the tables in FIG. 10A, 10B or 11A. The predetermined set of miRNAs should preferably comprise at least 7, preferably at least 10, 15, 20 or 24 of the indicated nucleic acids. It is particularly preferred to include the 24, 20, 15, 10 or at least 7 of the first mentioned miRNAs according to their order in the tables in FIG. 10A, 10B or 11A.

In a still further embodiment, the predetermined set of miRNA molecules for the diagnosis of lung cancer comprises at least one preferred signature as shown in FIG. 11B. It should be noted that preferred diagnostic sets may also comprise one or more miRNAs of the miRNAs disclosed FIG. 11B, and any combination of the miRNAs together with one or more further diagnostically relevant miRNA from FIGS. 10A, 10B and 11A. Preferred predetermined sets of miRNA molecules based on FIG. 11B comprise at least 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 miRNAs and up to 10, 15 or 20 or more miRNAs.

For the diagnosis of different types of diseases, such as for a different type of cancer, a different predetermined set of miRNAs should be determined in step (a) of the method of the invention. The relevant miRNA signatures can be obtained according to the workflow depicted in FIG. 9 and as explained above.

According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the disease to be determined is multiple sclerosis. Surprisingly, the inventors found out that miRNAs are differentially regulated in samples from MS patients as compared to health controls. A complete overview of all miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of multiple sclerosis patients is provided in the table shown in FIGS. 18A, B and C. In one embodiment, 193 miRNAs were found to be significantly deregulated in blood cells of MS patients as compared to controls (FIG. 18A). In a further embodiment—based on additional information—165 miRNAs were found to be significantly deregulated in blood cells of MS patients as compared to controls (FIG. 18B). In a still further embodiment, 308 miRNAs were found to be significantly deregulated in blood cells of MS patients as compared to controls (FIG. 18C).

Preferably, the predetermined set of miRNAs for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis comprises one or more nucleic acids selected from the deregulated miRNAs presented in the tables in FIG. 18A, 18B or 18C. The predetermined set of miRNAs should preferably comprise at least 7, preferably at least 10, 15, 20 or 24 of the indicated nucleic acids. It is particularly preferred to include the 24, 20, 15, 10 or at least 7 of the first mentioned miRNAs according to their order in the tables in FIG. 18A, 18B or 18C, preferably except hsa-miR-148a, hsa-mi18b, hsa-miR-96, hsa-miR-96, hsa-miR-599, hsa-miR-493, hsa-miR184, hsa-miR-193a.

Thus, preferably the predetermined set of miRNAs for the diagnosis of MS comprises one or more nucleic acids selected from the 24 most deregulated miRNAs hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-186, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-584, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-223, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-142-3p, hsa-let-7c, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-491-5p, hsa-miR-942, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-22*, hsa-miR-140-5p, hsa-miR-216a, hsa-miR-1275, hsa-miR-367, hsa-miR-146a, hsa-miR-598, hsa-miR-613, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-302b, hsa-miR-501-5p. Preferably, the predetermined set of miRNAs comprises at least 7, preferably at least 10, 15, 20 or all of the above-indicated nucleic acids. Most preferably, the predetermined set of miRNAs comprises those miRNAs that were most significantly deregulated: hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-186, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-584, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-223, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-142-3p, hsa-let-7c.

In another embodiment, the predetermined set of miRNAs for the diagnosis of MS comprises at least one preferred signature 1-84 as shown in FIG. 18D. It should be noted that preferred diagnostic sets may also comprise one or more miRNAs of the miRNAs disclosed in FIG. 18D and any combination of the miRNAs together with one or more further diagnostically relevant miRNA from FIG. 18A, 18B or 18C. Preferred predetermined sets of miRNA molecules based on FIG. 18D comprise at least 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 miRNAs and up to 10, 15, or 20 or more miRNAs.

According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the disease to be determined is melanoma. Surprisingly, the inventors found out that miRNAs are differentially regulated in samples from melanoma patients as compared to healthy controls. A complete overview of all miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of melanoma patients is provided in the tables shown in FIG. 30A. In one embodiment 863 miRNAs, particularly the first 414 miRNAs, were found to be significantly deregulated in blood cells of melanoma patients as compared to the controls. The first 414 miRNAs are statistically of high relevance (p<0.05).

In a further embodiment, —based on additional information—353 miRNAs were found to be significantly deregulated in blood cells of melanoma patients as compared to controls (FIG. 30B).

Preferably, the predetermined set of miRNAs for the diagnosis of melanoma comprises one or more nucleic acids selected from the deregulated miRNAs presented in the table in FIG. 30A or 30B.

In a further embodiment, the measured miRNA profiles were classified using statistical learning approaches in order to compute accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity for the diagnosis of melanoma as described in more detail in the experimental section. The miRNAs that performed best for the diagnosis of melanoma according to their accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity are hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-342-5p, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-30a, hsa-miR-181-2*, hsa-miR-30e, hsa-miR-1227, hsa-let-7b*, hsa-miR-34a, hsa-miR-1301, hsa-miR-584, and hsa-miR-1286.

In a further embodiment the predetermined set of miRNAs for the diagnosis of melanoma comprises one or more miRNAs selected from the group consisting of hsa-miR-186, hsa-let-7d*, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-501-5p, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-29c*, hsa-miR-1280, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-1249, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-30d, and hsa-miR-17*.

In still another embodiment, the predetermined set of miRNAs for the diagnosis of melanoma comprises one or more miRNAs selected from the group consisting of hsa-miR-452*, hsa-miR-216a, hsa-miR-186, hsa-let-7d*, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-646, hsa-miR-217, hsa-miR-621, hsa-miR-517*, hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-593*, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-1280, hsa-let-7i*, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-330-3p, hsa-miR-767-5p, hsa-miR-183*, hsa-miR-1249, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-509-3-5p, hsa-miR-519b-5p, hsa-miR-362-3p, hsa-miR-501-5p, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-342-5p, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-181a-2*, hsa-miR-518e*, hsa-miR-362-5p, hsa-miR-584, hsa-miR-550*, hsa-miR-30a, hsa-miR-221*, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-625, hsa-miR-146a, hsa-miR-214, hsa-miR-106b, hsa-miR-18a, hsa-miR-30e*, hsa-miR-125a-5p, hsa-miR-142-3p, hsa-miR-107, hsa-miR-20a, hsa-miR-22* and hsa-miR-199a-5p.

In a further embodiment the present invention allows the detection of skin cancer, i.e. melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. FIG. 32A shows a list of especially preferred miRNAs suitable for the diagnosis of skin cancer, e.g. melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. FIG. 32B shows a list of especially preferred miRNAs suitable for the diagnosis of melanoma. The invention encompasses preferably the use of at least one miRNA from those lists, e.g. at least 5, preferably at least 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 or more of those miRNAs.

In another embodiment, the predetermined set of miRNAs comprises at least one preferred signature 1 to 84 for the diagnosis of melanoma as shown in FIG. 33A. In another embodiment, the predetermined set of miRNAs comprises at least one preferred signature 1 to 42 as shown in FIG. 33B for the diagnosis of skin cancer includes melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. It should be noted that preferred diagnostic sets may also comprise one or more miRNAs of the miRNAs disclosed in FIGS. 33A and 33B and any combination of these miRNAs together with one or more further diagnostically relevant miRNA from FIGS. 30A, 30B, 32A and 32B. Preferred predetermined sets of miRNA molecules based on FIG. 33A or 33B comprise at least 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 miRNAs and up to 10, 15, 20 or more miRNAs.

Another embodiment of the present invention is a kit for diagnosing a disease, comprising means for determining an expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs in a biological sample, in particular in a blood, plasma and/or serum sample including whole blood, plasma, serum or fractions thereof, or in a sample comprising peripheral blood mononuclear cells, erythrocytes, leukocytes and/or thrombocytes. Preferably, one or more reference expression profiles are also provided which show the expression profile of the same set of miRNAs in the same type of biological sample, in particular in a blood and/or serum sample, obtained from one or more healthy subjects. A comparison to said reference expression profile(s) allows for the diagnosis of the disease.

The kit is preferably a test kit for detecting a predetermined set of miRNAs in sample by nucleic acid hybridisation and optionally amplification such as PCR or RT-PCR. The kit preferably comprises probes and/or primers for detecting a predetermined set of miRNAs. Further, the kit may comprise enzymes and reagents e.g. for the cDNA synthesis from miRNAs prior to qRT-PCR.

The kits for diagnosing diseases preferably comprise predetermined sets of miRNAs as described above, particularly for the diagnosis of lung cancer, multiple sclerosis and skin cancer, particularly melanoma as described above.

A kit for diagnosing lung cancer preferably comprises means for determining the expression profile of one or more miRNAs selected from the group (a) consisting of hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-23b, hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-527, hsa-miR-29a, hsa-let-7i, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-28-5p, hsa-miR-185*, hsa-miR-23a, hsa-miR-1914*, hsa-miR-29c, hsa-miR-505*, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-378, hsa-miR-29b, hsa-miR-604, hsa-miR-29b, hsa-let-7b, hsa-miR-299-3p, hsa-miR-423-3p, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-1909, hsa-let-7c, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-425, hsa-miR-93*, hsa-miR-665, hsa-miR-30e, hsa-miR-339-3p, hsa-miR-1307, hsa-miR-625*, hsa-miR-193a-5p, hsa-miR-130b, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-574-5p and hsa-miR-324-3p.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the kit for diagnosing lung cancer preferably comprises means for determining the expression profile of one or more miRNAs selected from the group (b) consisting of hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-574-5p, hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7f, hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-339-5p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-26b, hsa-miR-604, hsa-miR-423-3p and hsa-miR-93*.

In a preferred embodiment, the kit comprises means for determining at least 7, preferably at least 10, 15, 20 or 24 miRNAs of the indicated groups of miRNAs. It is particularly preferred to include means for determining the 24, 20, 15, 10 or at least 7 of the first mentioned miRNAs in the order of their MI-values or their performance in the t-tests as shown in the tables in FIGS. 10A and 10B. Most preferably, means for determining all of the above indicated miRNAs are included in the kit for diagnosing lung cancer. The kit is particularly suitable for diagnosing lung cancer in a blood and/or serum sample or in a sample comprising erythrocytes, leukocytes and/or thrombocytes.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the kit for the diagnosis of lung cancer comprises means for determining the miRNAs hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-574-5p, hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7f, hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-339-5p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-18a* and hsa-miR-26b.

Further, a kit for the diagnosis of lung cancer may comprise means for determining miRNAs selected from the miRNAs shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B as described above.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention is a kit for diagnosing multiple sclerosis, comprising means for determining the expression profile of one or more miRNAs presented in the table in FIGS. 18A, B, C and D as described above.

Preferably the kit may comprise one or more miRNAs selected from the group consisting of hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-186, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-584, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-223, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-142-3p, hsa-let-7c, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-491-5p, hsa-miR-942, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-22*, hsa-miR-140-5p, hsa-miR-216a, hsa-miR-1275, hsa-miR-367, hsa-miR-146a, hsa-miR-598, hsa-miR-613, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-302b, hsa-miR-501-5p.

In a preferred embodiment the kit comprises means for determining at least seven, preferably at least 10, 15, 20 or all of the indicated miRNAs. It is particularly preferred to include means for determining the 24, 20, 15, 10 or at least 7 first mentioned miRNAs in the order of their diagnostic significance as represented by their order in the tables in FIG. 18A, 18B or 18C. Further, the kit may comprise means for determining the expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs based on FIG. 18D as described above.

The kit for diagnosing MS is particularly suitable for diagnosing MS in a blood, plasma and/or serum sample or in a sample comprising peripheral blood mononuclear cells, erythrocytes, leukocytes and/or thrombocytes.

Another preferred embodiment of the invention is a kit for diagnosing melanoma, or skin cancer including melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer comprising means for determining the expression profile of one or more miRNAs presented in the table in FIGS. 30A and 30B, preferably one or more miRNAs selected from the group of hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-342-5p, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-30a, hsa-miR-181-2*, hsa-miR-30e, hsa-miR-1227, hsa-let-7b*, hsa-miR-34a, hsa-miR-1301, hsa-miR-584, and hsa-miR-1286 (see FIG. 31).

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the kit for diagnosing melanoma comprises means for determining the miRNAs hsa-miR-452*, hsa-miR-216a, hsa-miR-186, hsa-let-7d*, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-646, hsa-miR-217, hsa-miR-621, hsa-miR-517*, hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-593*, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-1280, hsa-let-7i*, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-330-3p, hsa-miR-767-5p, hsa-miR-183*, hsa-miR-1249, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-509-3-5p, hsa-miR-519b-5p, hsa-miR-362-3p, hsa-miR-501-5p, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-342-5p, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-181a-2*, hsa-miR-518e*, hsa-miR-362-5p, hsa-miR-584, hsa-miR-550*, hsa-miR-30a, hsa-miR-221*, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-625, hsa-miR-146a, hsa-miR-214, hsa-miR-106b, hsa-miR-18a, hsa-miR-30e*, hsa-miR-125a-5p, hsa-miR-142-3p, hsa-miR-107, hsa-miR-20a, hsa-miR-22* and hsa-miR-199a-5p.

In another particularly preferred embodiment, the kit for diagnosing melanoma comprises means for determining the miRNAs hsa-miR-186, hsa-let-7d*, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-501-5p, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-29c*, hsa-miR-1280, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-1249, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-30d, and hsa-miR-17*.

In another preferred embodiment, the kit comprises means for determining at least 7, preferably at least 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, or all of the indicated miRNAs. It is particularly preferred to include means for determining the 24, 20, 15, 10 or at least 7 first mentioned miRNAs in the order of the diagnostic significance as represented by their order in the table of FIG. 30A or 30B.

Further, the kit may comprise means for determining the expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs based on FIGS. 32A, 32B, 33A and 33B as described above.

The kit for diagnosing melanoma or skin cancer including melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer is particularly suitable for diagnosing melanoma in a blood, plasma and/or serum sample or in a sample comprising erythrocytes, leukocytes and/or thrombocytes.

In a further embodiment the means for determining a predetermined set of miRNAs may be RT-PCR/qRT-PCR (real time polymerase chain reaction). The workflow for RT-PCR/qRT-PCR may include the following steps: (i) extracting the total RNA from a blood sample, e.g. whole blood, serum, or plasma, of a human subject, e.g. a human subject with unknown clinical condition, e.g. healthy person or patient suffering from a disease (e.g. skin cancer, melanoma, lung cancer multiple sclerosis), and obtaining cDNA samples by an RNA reverse transcription (RT) reaction using miRNA-specific primers; or collecting a blood sample, e.g. whole blood, serum, or plasma, from a human and conducting reverse transcriptase reaction using miRNA-specific primers with blood, e.g. whole blood, serum, or plasma, being a buffer so as to prepare cDNA samples, (ii) designing miRNA-specific cDNA forward primers and providing universal reverse primers to amplify the cDNA via polymerase chain reaction (PCR), (iii) adding a labeled, e.g. fluorescent probe to conduct PCR, and (iv) detecting and comparing the variation in levels of miRNAs in the blood sample, e.g. whole blood, serum, or plasma, relative to those of miRNAs in normal (control) blood, e.g. whole blood, serum, or plasma, sample. A variety of kits and protocols to determine an expression profile by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) such as real time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) are available. For example, reverse transcription of miRNAs may be performed using the TaqMan MicroRNA Reverse Transcription Kit (Applied Biosystems) according to manufacturer's recommendations. Briefly, miRNA may be combined with dNTPs, MultiScribe reverse transcriptase and the primer specific for the target miRNA. The resulting cDNA may be diluted and may be used for PCR reaction. The PCR may be performed according to the manufacturer's recommendation (Applied Biosystems). Briefly, cDNA may be combined with the TaqMan assay specific for the target miRNA and PCR reaction may be performed using ABI7300.

The means for determining a predetermined set of miRNAs may for example comprise a microarray comprising miRNA-specific oligonucleotide probes. In a preferred embodiment, the microarray comprises miRNA-specific oligonucleotide probes for the detection of miRNAs. Depending on the intended use of the microarray in the diagnosis or prognosis of a particular disease, probes for detecting different miRNAs may be included. A microarray for use in the diagnostic of lung cancer preferably comprises miRNA-specific oligonucleotide probes for one or more miRNAs selected from the group consisting of:

(a) hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-23b, hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-527, hsa-miR-29a, hsa-let-7i, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-28-5p, hsa-miR-185*, hsa-miR-23a, hsa-miR-1914*, hsa-miR-29c, hsa-miR-505*, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-378, hsa-miR-29b, hsa-miR-604, hsa-miR-29b, hsa-let-7b, hsa-miR-299-3p, hsa-miR-423-3p, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-1909, hsa-let-7c, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-425, hsa-miR-93*, hsa-miR-665, hsa-miR-30e, hsa-miR-339-3p, hsa-miR-1307, hsa-miR-625*, hsa-miR-193a-5p, hsa-miR-130b, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-574-5p and hsa-miR-324-3p or (b) hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-574-5p, hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7f, hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-339-5p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-26b, hsa-miR-604, hsa-miR-423-3p and hsa-miR-93*.

In a preferred embodiment, the microarray comprises oligonucleotide probes for determining at least 7, preferably at least 10, 15, 20 or 24 of the miRNAs of the indicated groups (a) and (b) of miRNAs. It is particularly preferred to include oligonucleotide probes for determining the 24, 20, 15, 10 or at least 7 of the first mentioned miRNAs in the order of their MI-values or their performance in the t-tests as shown in the tables in FIGS. 10A and 10B.

Further, the array may comprise probes for determining miRNAs as shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B as described above.

Most preferably, oligonucleotide probes for determining all of the above indicated miRNAs of groups (a) or (b) are included in the microarray for diagnosing lung cancer.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the microarray for use in the diagnosis of lung cancer comprises oligonucleotide probes for determining the miRNAs hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i, hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-574-5p, hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7f, hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-339-5p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-18a* and hsa-miR-26b.

A microarray intended for use in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis preferably comprises miRNA specific oligonucleotide probes for one or more miRNAs presented in the tables in FIGS. 18A, 18B and 18C, preferably for one or more miRNAs selected from the group consisting of hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-186, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-584, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-223, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-142-3p, hsa-let-7c, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-491-5p, hsa-miR-942, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-22*, hsa-miR-140-5p, hsa-miR-216a, hsa-miR-1275, hsa-miR-367, hsa-miR-146a, hsa-miR-598, hsa-miR-613, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-302b, hsa-miR-501-5p.

In a preferred embodiment the microarray comprises oligonucleotide probes for determining at least 7, preferably at least 10, 15, 20 or all of the indicated miRNAs. It is particularly preferred to include oligonucleotide probes for determining the most significant miRNAs, which is represented by their order in the tables depicted in FIGS. 18A, 18B and 18C.

Further, the array may comprise oligonucleotide probes for determining miRNAs as shown in FIG. 18D as described above.

The microarray can comprise oligonucleotide probes obtained from known or predicted miRNA sequences. The array may contain different oligonucleotide probes for each miRNA, for example one containing the active mature sequence and another being specific for the precursor of the miRNA. The array may also contain controls such as one or more sequences differing from the human orthologs by only a few bases, which can serve as controls for hybridization stringency conditions. It is also possible to include viral miRNAs or putative miRNAs as predicted from bioinformatic tools. Further, it is possible to include appropriate controls for non-specific hybridization on the microarray.

A microarray intended for use in the diagnosis of melanoma preferably comprises miRNA-specific oligonucleotide probes for one or more miRNAs presented in the table of FIG. 30A or 30B, preferably one or more miRNAs selected from the group consisting of hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-342-5p, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-30a, hsa-miR-181-2*, hsa-miR-30e, hsa-miR-1227, hsa-let-7b*, hsa-miR-34a, hsa-miR-1301, hsa-miR-584, and hsa-miR-1286 (FIG. 31).

In another preferred embodiment, the microarray for use in the diagnosis of melanoma comprises oligonucleotide probes for determining the miRNAs hsa-miR-452*, hsa-miR-216a, hsa-miR-186, hsa-let-7d*, hsa-miR-17*, hsa-miR-646, hsa-miR-217, hsa-miR-621, hsa-miR-517*, hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-593*, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-1280, hsa-let-7i*, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-330-3p, hsa-miR-767-5p, hsa-miR-183*, hsa-miR-1249, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-509-3-5p, hsa-miR-519b-5p, hsa-miR-362-3p, hsa-miR-501-5p, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-151-3p, hsa-miR-342-5p, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-181a-2*, hsa-miR-5180*, hsa-miR-362-5p, hsa-miR-584, hsa-miR-550*, hsa-miR-30a, hsa-miR-221*, hsa-miR-361-3p, hsa-miR-625, hsa-miR-146a, hsa-miR-214, hsa-miR-106b, hsa-miR-18a, hsa-miR-30e*, hsa-miR-125a-5p, hsa-miR-142-3p, hsa-miR-107, hsa-miR-20a, hsa-miR-22* and hsa-miR-199a-5p.

In another preferred embodiment, the microarray for use in the diagnosis of melanoma comprises oligonucleotide probes for determining the miRNAs hsa-miR-186, hsa-let-7d*, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-501-5p, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-29c*, hsa-miR-1280, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-1249, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-30d, and hsa-miR-17*.

Further, the microarray may comprise oligonucleotide probes for determining the miRNAs as shown in FIGS. 32A, 32B, 33A and 33B as described above.

The invention also relates to sets of oligo- or polynucleotides for diagnosing lung cancer comprising the sequences of at least 5, preferably at least 7, 10, 15, 20 or all of the indicated miRNAs and/or the complement of such sequences. It is particularly preferred to include oligo- or polynucleotides for detecting the most significant miRNAs which are represented by the order in the table depicted in FIGS. 10A and 10B. Further, it is preferred to include oligo- or polynucleotides for detecting the miRNAs as shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B.

The invention also relates to sets of oligo- or polynucleotides for diagnosing multiple sclerosis comprising the sequences of at least 5, preferably at least 7, 10, 15, 20 or all of the indicated miRNAs, and/or the complement of such sequences. It is particularly preferred to include oligo- or polynucleotides of the most significant miRNAs, which are represented by their order in the table depicted in FIG. 18A, 18B or 18C. In a further embodiment, the set includes oligo- or polynucleotides for detecting the miRNAs based on FIG. 18D as described above.

The invention also relates to sets of oligo- or polynucleotides for diagnosing melanoma or skin cancer including melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer comprising the sequences of at least 5, preferably at least 7, 10, 15, or all of the indicated miRNAs, and/or the complement of such sequences. It is particularly preferred to include oligo- or polynucleotides of the most significant miRNAs which are represented by the order in the tables depicted in FIGS. 30A and 30B. In a further embodiment, the set includes oligo- or polynucleotides of the miRNAs based on FIGS. 32A, 32B, 33A and 33B as described above.

The oligo- or polynucleotides preferably have a length of 10, 15 or 20 and up to 30, 40, 50, 100 or more nucleotides. The term “oligo- or polynucleotides” includes single- or double-stranded molecules, RNA molecules, DNA molecules or nucleic acid analogs such as PNA or LNA.

Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for diagnosing and/or predicting the health state in a subject or for the assessment of a clinical condition of a patient.

For a manifold of human diseases, including cancer, molecular diagnostics methods have been developed over the past decades. However, only a small percentage of those tests has made its way into the clinical practice.

Recent developments have shown that there is a tendency towards smaller sets of biomarkers for the detection, including diagnosis and/or prognosis, of diseases. However, for single biomarkers and small biomarker sets, there is only a basic understanding whether these biomarkers are specific for only the single diseases or whether they occur in any other disease.

Therefore, the present inventors developed a novel class of diagnostic tests improving the current test scenarios. The inventors found out that a variety of diseases is correlated with a specific expression profile of miRNAs. In case a patient is affected by a particular disease, several miRNAs are present in larger amounts compared to a healthy normal control, whereas the amount of other miRNAs is decreased. Interestingly, the amount of some miRNAs is deregulated, i.e. increased or decreased, in more than one disease. The miRNA profile for a particular disease therefore shows conformity with the miRNA profile of other diseases in regard of individual miRNAs while other miRNAs show significant differences. If the expression profile of a large variety of miRNAs in a biological sample of a patient is measured, the comparison of the expression profile with a variety of reference expression profiles which are each characteristic for different diseases, or more generally the conditions, makes it possible to obtain information about the clinical condition of a certain patient and to determine, which disease(s) is/are present or absent in said patient.

A subject matter of this embodiment of the invention is a method for the assessment of a clinical condition of a patient comprising the steps

-   -   (a) providing a biological sample from the patient,     -   (b) determining a predetermined set of miRNAs in said sample to         obtain a miRNA expression profile,     -   (c) comparing said miRNA expression profile with a plurality of         miRNA reference expression profiles characteristic for different         diseases, and     -   (d) assessing the clinical condition of the patient based on the         comparison of step (c).

The inventors found out that the above method for the assessment of a clinical condition makes it possible to carry out an integrative diagnosis of a wide variety of diseases. Comparing a miRNA profile obtained from a biological sample of a patient whose clinical condition is not known with a plurality of reference profiles characteristic for different diseases enables the diagnosis of a wide variety of diseases with high specificity and sensitivity.

The set of miRNAs determined in the above step (b) preferably includes a large number of different miRNAs. It is particularly preferred to use at least 50, preferably at least 100, 200, 500 or 1,000 miRNAs. Most preferably, all known miRNAs are included in the set of miRNAs determined in step (b), for example the miRNAs disclosed in the Sequence Listing. Such a complex set of miRNA-biomarkers enables a diagnosis with higher specificity and sensitivity compared to single biomarkers or sets of only a few dozens of such markers.

The determination of the set of miRNAs can be done as described herein above. Preferably, the determination is done on an experimental platform which shows a high degree of automation to minimize experimental variations, measures results time- and cost-efficiently, measures results highly reproduceably and is suitable for measuring more than one sample at once in order to ensure a high throughput.

Step (c) of the above method of assessment of a clinical condition preferably includes a comparison of the miRNA profile measured for a patient with a large number of different miRNA reference profiles to provide information about the presence of as many different diseases as possible. The reference expression profiles may be laid down in a database, e.g. an internet database, a centralized or a decentralized database. The reference profiles do not necessarily have to include information about all miRNAs included in step (b), which are determined in the sample of the patient. It is, according to the invention, sufficient if the reference profile provides information on those miRNAs which are altered to a large extent compared to the condition of a healthy individual in case of the presence of a disease.

Preferably, an miRNA reference profile according to the invention provides information on miRNA expression characteristic for a particular disease in the same type of biological sample as used in step (b) for determining a predetermined set of miRNAs in a sample from a patient. This means that, if a patient with an unknown disease is to be classified with the analysis of a blood sample, the comparison is preferably made with miRNA reference expression profiles, which do also relate to the miRNA expression pattern in a blood sample.

The reference profiles characteristic for particular diseases provide information on one or more miRNAs, which are, in case of the disease, highly deregulated, for example strongly increased or decreased, as compared to a healthy condition. It is not necessary for the reference profiles to provide information about all miRNAs included in the set of biomarkers determined in step (b). However, the more miRNAs are included in the reference profile, the more precise the diagnosis will be. If, for example, a reference profile for lung cancer is included, it is preferred to include the characteristic miRNAs for lung cancer as disclosed hereinabove. Equivalently, it is preferred to include into a reference profile for multiple sclerosis the characteristic miRNAs for multiple sclerosis as described hereinabove as well. Alternatively, it is preferred to include into a reference profile for melanoma the characteristic miRNAs for melanoma as described hereinabove as well.

Examples for diseases that can be determined using the method for the assessment of a clinical condition disclosed above are lung cancer, multiple sclerosis, pancreatic cancer, melanoma and Wilm's tumor.

Another embodiment of this aspect of the invention is a kit for the assessment of a clinical condition of a patient comprising

(a) means for determining a predetermined set of miRNAs in a biological sample from a patient, and

(b) a plurality of miRNA reference expression profiles characteristic for different diseases.

The set of miRNAs to be determined in a biological sample from a patient preferably includes a large number of different miRNAs. It is particularly preferred to include all known miRNAs in the set of miRNAs to be determined. In each case, said predetermined set of miRNAs should include those miRNAs for which information is provided in the reference profiles characteristic for particular diseases. It is understood that only in case the set of miRNAs determined in a biological sample from a patient comprises those miRNAs included in the reference profile for a disease, a diagnosis regarding this particular disease can be provided.

The assessment of a clinical condition of a patient according to the invention is suitable for diagnosing any diseases which are correlated with a characteristic miRNA profile. Accordingly, the kit for the assessment of a clinical condition preferably includes reference profiles for a plurality of diseases that are correlated with a characteristic miRNA profile. It is understood that all miRNAs that are significantly degregulated in the disease states for which reference profiles are provided should be included in the set of miRNAs to be determined in a biological sample from a patient. If the kit for the assessment of a clinical condition of a patient should provide information regarding, e.g. lung cancer, a reference profile should be available providing information about the significantly deregulated miRNAs compared to a normal control individual. The miRNAs deregulated in case of lung cancer are as described as hereinabove. Similarly, in case the kit for the assessment of a clinical condition shall provide information on the presence of multiple sclerosis, a reference profile characteristic for multiple sclerosis should be included. Said reference profile preferably includes information on those miRNAs that are most significantly deregulated in the case of MS. The relevant miRNAs are as disclosed hereinabove. Similarly, in case the kit for the assessment of a clinical condition shall provide information on the presence of melanoma, a reference profile characteristic for melanoma should be included. Said reference profile preferably includes information on those miRNAs that are most significantly deregulated in the case of melanoma. The relevant miRNAs are as disclosed hereinabove.

Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health of a subject comprising:

(a) providing a biological sample from the subject,

(b) providing a matrix that comprises at least one miRNA capture probe,

(c) contacting said total RNA with the matrix of step (b),

(d) determining the miRNA profile of said total RNA,

(e) comparing the miRNA profile of step (d) with the expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs, wherein each set is characteristic for a particular disease,

(f) calculating the probability value of said individual for each particular disease, and

(g) collecting the highest probability values determined in step (f) to diagnose and/or prognosis the health state of said individual.

In this method, a biological sample from a subject is provided and the complete expression profile of miRNAs is determined in that sample. In a preferred embodiment, the complete miRNA expression profile of the miRNAs depicted in the Sequence Listing is obtained. However, it is not excluded that the miRNA expression profile of further miRNAs is also determined in the biological sample from the subject including all miRNAs that are determined further in the future. The expression profile of the miRNAs in the biological sample of the subject is then compared to the expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a particular disease. This predetermined set of miRNAs may comprise miRNAs that are characteristic for multiple sclerosis, lung cancer and/or melanoma. In case the particular disease is multiple sclerosis, a preferred set of miRNAs comprises the miRNAs depicted in FIG. 18B. In case the particular disease is lung cancer, the preferred set of miRNAs is depicted in FIG. 10B. In case the particular disease is melanoma, the preferred set of miRNAs is depicted in FIG. 30A. The method does not exclude that predetermined sets of miRNAs that are characteristic for further diseases are included into the analysis.

Further in the method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health of a subject, the determined miRNA expression profile of the biological sample from the subject is further compared to the miRNA expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a variable number of particular diseases. The prediction regarding the state of health of the subject is the more precise the more diseases are included into the analysis. As already explained above, comparison of the miRNA expression profiles between the subject under investigation and the expression profile of the predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a particular disease is done as follows: As described above, the inventors have found that among all miRNAs that are known, a particular set of miRNAs is characteristic for a particular disease. Within this set of miRNAs, the expression of a particular miRNA is deregulated compared to the expression of the same miRNA derived from a sample from a healthy subject. Deregulated in the sense of the invention may comprise an increased level of expression compared to the same miRNA derived from a sample of a healthy person. Alternatively, “deregulated” may comprise a decreased level of expression of the same miRNA derived from a sample of a healthy subject. Thus, the method comprises the comparison whether a particular miRNA expression state determined in a biological subject from the sample shows the same deregulation than the miRNA of a predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a particular disease. This is done for all miRNAs in the sample from the subject for which the same miRNA has been included in the predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a particular disease. This analysis allows the calculation for the subject under investigation regarding the probability value for each particular disease included into the investigation and collection of the highest probability values allows for a diagnosis or prognosis regarding the health state of the subject.

In a further embodiment, the method of diagnosing or predicting the state of health of a subject results in a medical decision for said subject.

In a further embodiment, the miRNA expression profile of said subject and the expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs are stored in a database.

In a further embodiment, the probability value determined for each of the particular diseases is calculated by comparing the miRNA expression profile of said object to a reference expression profile as described herein. In a further embodiment, the matrix that comprises at least one miRNA capture probe is a microarray.

In a further embodiment, the biological sample from the subject comprises the total RNA. The total RNA may be labeled before contacting the total RNA with the matrix. Alternatively, the total RNA is not labeled before contacting said total RNA with the matrix.

In a further embodiment of the invention, contacting of said biological sample with the matrix comprises stringent hybridisation and/or polymerase-based primer extension. Alternatively, in case the matrix is a microarray as described herein, the contacting step of the biological sample with the microarray comprises an enzymatic reaction and/or a primer extension reaction.

In a further embodiment, the expression profiles are determined by RT-PCR, qRT-PCR or a Luminex-based assay.

A further embodiment of the invention relates to an apparatus for diagnosing or predicting the state of health of a subject comprising:

-   (a) database for storing a plurality of expression profiles of a     predetermined set of miRNAs, -   (b) means for generating an expression profile of a biological     sample.

Preferably, the means comprises capture probes for at least one miRNA. In another preferred embodiment, the means are designed for parallel detection of a plurality of miRNAs molecules. The means may comprise a fluidic system, a detection system, means for input/injection of a biological sample, preferably total RNA from a subject, means for holding a matrix with a capture probe, means for connecting the sample input/injection matrix with a capture probe holding the fluidic system, means for hybridisation, enzymatic reactions and washing steps and/or means for heating and cooling of the reaction carried out on a matrix comprising a capture probe. Further, the means may comprise a PCR, RT-PCR, qRT-PCR, or Luminex-based system. In addition, the apparatus comprises a computer and an algorithm for comparing miRNA expression profiles and calculating the probability value.

Another embodiment of the invention is a method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health in a subject comprising the steps:

(a) providing a RNA sample from said subject,

(b) providing means for determining a plurality of miRNA and/or other non-coding RNA molecules, e.g. at least 4, 6, 8, 10, 20, 100, 1000, or 15000 and e.g. up to 1000, 10000, or 1000000 molecules, wherein the means may be matrix of capture probes,

(c) contacting the sample of (a) with the means, e.g. matrix of (b),

(d) determining the expression profile of a plurality of miRNAs and/or other non-coding RNAs in the sample of (a),

(e) providing a plurality of reference miRNA and/or other non-coding RNA expression profiles obtained from a plurality of different reference subjects representing a plurality of different conditions

(f) calculating a common signature profile from a combination of at least 2 conditions, represented by the corresponding expression profiles in step (e), wherein the common signature profile is a subset of miRNAs differentiating between the said at least 2 conditions, (g) comparing the miRNA and/or other non-coding RNA profile of step (d) with a common signature profile of step (f), and (h) calculating the probability value of said subject for the at least 2 conditions, and (i) optionally repeating steps (f), (g) and (h) for at least another common signature profile, and/or (g) optionally collecting the probability values for the particular common signature profiles to diagnose and/or predict the health state of said subject.

The term “state of health” includes at least one condition as defined above. It may also include a plurality of different conditions.

In preferred embodiments, the clinical conditions are related to lung cancer, multiple sclerosis, skin cancer or melanoma.

In the context of the invention it should be noted that all the methods described herein may be performed on other sources than miRNA, e.g. another non-coding RNAs, e.g. tRNAs, r-RNAs, siRNAs, and ncRNAs as described herein. In this case, the means, e.g matrix, capture probes etc. are designed in order to detect other non-coding RNAs, e.g. tRNAs, r-RNAs, siRNAs, and ncRNAs as described herein. The methods providing such probes are well known by a person skilled in the art.

The sample of the subject is the RNA source on which the expression analysis of the non-coding RNAs including miRNAs is conducted. The state of health of the subject may be unknown prior to analysis.

The matrix for performing the expression analysis may comprise a plurality of capture probes that are designed to detect a plurality of non-coding RNAs, including miRNAs. The higher the complexity of the capture probes on the matrix, i.e. the more non-coding RNAs, e.g. miRNAs, that can be detected by this matrix, the higher is the information content regarding the state of health of the analysis. In one embodiment of the present invention, the intention is to increase the amount of miRNAs or non-coding RNAs to the highest possible level. Today, the miRBase as an official repository of validated miRNAs lists approximately 1000 human miRNAs. Therefore, it is desirable to have all of these miRNAs being represented by a capture probe within/on a matrix. It is intended by the invention that the capture matrix comprising the capture probes is constantly updated and increased in its complexity as soon as new miRNAs or other non-coding RNAs become known.

The RNA sample that is brought into contact with the matrix comprising the capture probes is e.g. a total RNA sample or a subfraction that includes the non-coding RNAs and/or miRNAs of interest. The RNA sample may be obtained from a biological sample as defined herein. After bringing the RNA sample into contact with the matrix comprising the capture probes, an expression profile is determined, resulting in a numerical value for the capture probes representing the expression level of the non-coding RNAs and/or miRNAs of interest.

The non-coding and/or miRNA-profile of the subject is afterwards compared with a plurality of reference non-coding and/or miRNA-profiles. These reference profiles may be obtained from a plurality of subjects covering a plurality of defined conditions (including e.g. healthy controls and subjects suffering from different diseases). These reference profiles are e.g. stored in a database. Before the comparison from the plurality of reference profiles so-called common signature profiles are generated. A common signature profile is understood in the present invention as a non-fixed defined set of miRNAs or non-coding RNAs which is able to differentiate between a condition 1 and another condition 2 (or even more conditions). The common miRNA or non-coding RNA signature profile may be calculated “on-the-fly” from the plurality of reference miRNA- or non-coding RNA profiles that e.g. are stored in a database.

Next the non-coding and/or miRNA-profile of the subject is compared with a at least one, preferably with a plurality, most preferably with all possible common signature profiles. For each of the comparisons a probability may be calculated.

In case the common signature profile is able to differentiate between 2 conditions, there will be a first probability value for condition 1 (e.g. lung cancer) and a second probability value for condition 2 (e.g. multiple sclerosis), whereby both add up to an overall probability value of 1.

In case the common signature profile is able to differentiate between 3 conditions, there will be altogether 3 probability values, one for each state of health.

After comparison of the non-coding RNA profile, e.g. the miRNA-profile to a least one common signature profile and calculation of the corresponding probabilities, valuable information is obtained that can be used to determine the state of health of the subject. This information can be used for diagnosis or prognosis for that subject. The broader the range of common signature profiles employed for comparison, the broader is the range of information on the state of health generated for that subject.

The information obtained reflects for that subject e.g.:

(i) the probability to have lung cancer or be healthy

(ii) the probability to have lung cancer or multiple sclerosis

(iii) the probability to have multiple sclerosis or be healthy

(iv) etc.

It is important to note that the information obtained is not limited to the information for either i), ii) or iii) in the example, but to the comprehensive information of i), ii) and iii), etc. Therefore, the present invention provides a comprehensive information on the state of health for a subject. The comprehensiveness of information is only limited by the range of common signature profiles resulting from a plurality of different conditions. The more conditions are available, the broader is the range of information on the health state that can be generated from the RNA sample of the subject with, e.g. unknown state of health.

The inventors found out that the above methods for diagnosing and/or predicting a clinical condition or the state of health make it possible to carry out an integrative diagnosis of a wide variety of conditions, including diseases. Comparing a non-coding RNA, incl. miRNA, profile obtained from a biological sample of, e.g. a subject whose state of health is not known with a plurality of reference profiles characteristic for different conditions enables the diagnosis and/or prognosis of a state of health with high specificity and sensitivity.

The capture probes of the matrix in step (b) of the above method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health in a subject are preferably specific for a large number of different miRNAs or non-coding RNAs. It is particularly preferred to determine at least 4, 6, 8, 10, 20, 100, 1000, or 15000 and e.g. up to 1000, 10000, or 1000000 RNA molecules, by e.g. using a respective number of capture probes. Most preferably, specific probes for all known miRNAs and/or non-coding RNAs are included in step (b), for example the miRNAs disclosed in the table in the sequence listing. Such a complex set of miRNA-biomarkers enables a diagnosis and/or prognosis with higher specificity and sensitivity compared to single biomarkers or sets of only a few dozens of such markers.

A well established repository of validated miRNAs is the miRBase.

The miRBase (www.mirbase.org) is a searchable database of published miRNA sequences and annotation. Each entry in the miRBase Sequence database represents a predicted hairpin portion of a miRNA transcript (termed mir in the database), with information on the location and sequence of the mature miRNA sequence (termed miR). Both hairpin and mature sequences are available for searching and browsing, and entries can also be retrieved by name, keyword, references and annotation. All sequence and annotation data are also available for download.

The determination of the miRNA reference profile representing a condition can be done as described herein above in the context of the determination of a predetermined set of miRNAs. Preferably, the determination is done on an experimental platform which shows a high degree of automation to minimize experimental variations, measures results time- and cost-efficiently, measures results highly reproducibly and is suitable for measuring more than one sample at once in order to ensure a high throughput.

Step (g) of the above method preferably includes a comparison of the miRNA profile measured for a subject with a large number of common signature profiles, obtained from different miRNA reference profiles to provide information for as many different conditions as possible. The reference expression profiles may be laid down in a database, e.g. an internet database, a centralized or a decentralized database. The reference profiles do not necessarily have to include information about all miRNAs determined in step (d). It is, according to the invention, sufficient if the reference profile provides information on those miRNA and/or non-coding RNA biomarkers which are altered to a large extent compared to the conditions to be compared (e.g. disease versus healthy control).

Preferably, a miRNA and/or non-coding RNA reference profile according to the above method of the invention provides information on miRNA and or non-coding RNA expression characteristic for a particular condition (e.g. disease) in the same type of biological sample as used in step (d) for determining the expression profile of a plurality of miRNAs in a sample from a patient. This means that, if a patient with an unknown state of health is to be classified with the analysis of a blood sample, the comparison is preferably made with miRNA and/or non-coding RNA reference expression profiles, which do also relate to the miRNA expression pattern in a blood sample.

The reference profiles characteristic for particular conditions (e.g. diseases) provide information on one or more miRNAs and/or non-coding RNA, which are, in case of a first condition (e.g. the disease), highly deregulated, for example strongly increased or decreased, as compared to another condition (e.g. healthy condition). It is not necessary for the reference profiles to provide information about all miRNAs included in the set of biomarkers determined in step (d). However, the more miRNAs are included in the reference profiles, the more precise the diagnosis will be. If, for example, a reference profile for lung cancer is included, it is preferred to include at least one characteristic miRNA, preferably a plurality of miRNAs, for the condition lung cancer as disclosed hereinabove. Equivalently, it is preferred to include into a reference profile for the condition multiple sclerosis at least one characteristic miRNA, preferably a plurality of miRNAs, for multiple sclerosis as described hereinabove as well. Alternatively, it is preferred to include into a reference profile for the condition melanoma at least one characteristic miRNA, preferably a plurality of miRNAs, for melanoma as described hereinabove as well.

Examples for conditions (e.g. diseases) that can be included into the method for diagnosing and/or predicting of a state of health of a subject disclosed above are lung cancer, multiple sclerosis, pancreatic cancer, melanoma and Wilm's tumor. The scope of the present invention is not limited to the above mentioned examples but is applicable to screening of a broad range of conditions including cancer (e.g. prostate, pancreatic, Wilms tumor, ovarian), cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases (e.g. pancreatitis), inflammatory diseases (e.g. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Sarcoidosis, Paradontitis, Crohn's disease, collitis) or autoimmune diseases (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis).

Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health of a subject comprising:

-   -   (a) providing a RNA sample from said subject,     -   (b) providing a means for determining a plurality of miRNA         and/or non-coding RNA molecules, e.g. at least 4, 6, 8, 10, 20,         50, 100, or 200 and e.g. up to 1000, 10 000, or 1 000 000         molecules, wherein the means may be a matrix of capture probes,     -   (c) contacting the sample of (a) with the means of (b),     -   (d) determining the expression of a plurality of and/or         non-coding RNAs in the sample of (a),     -   (e) comparing a predetermined subset of miRNAs and/or non-coding         RNAs in said miRNA and/or non-coding RNA expression profile,         wherein said subset is characteristic for a particular condition         (e.g. disease) to a corresponding subset of miRNAs and/or         non-coding RNAs in reference miRNA and/or non-coding RNA         expression profiles obtained from a plurality of different         reference subjects representing a plurality of different         conditions including the particular disease,     -   (f) calculating the probability value of said subject for the         particular condition (e.g. disease),     -   (g) optionally repeating steps (e) and (f) for at least one         different particular condition (e.g. disease)     -   (h) optionally collecting the probability values for particular         conditions (e.g. diseases) to diagnose and/or predict the health         state of said subject.

Step (e) preferably comprises:

-   -   providing a plurality, e.g. at least 10, 50, 100 and e.g. up to         1000, 10,000 or 1000 000 reference miRNA and/or non-coding RNA         expression profiles obtained from a plurality of different         reference subjects representing a plurality of different         conditions,     -   selecting a subset of miRNAs and/or non-coding RNAs in the         expression profile comprising a plurality of miRNAs and/or         non-coding RNAs characteristic for the particular condition         (e.g. disease),     -   comparing the subset of miRNAs and/or non-coding RNAs in the         subject to be analysed and in at least two groups of reference         subjects,     -   wherein the first group of subjects suffers from the particular         condition (e.g. disease) and the second group does not suffer         from the particular condition (e.g. disease), wherein the second         group may be healthy or may suffer from a different condition         (e.g. disease)

In this method, a biological sample from a subject (patient) is provided and the complete expression profile of miRNAs and or non-coding RNAs is determined in that sample. In a preferred embodiment, the complete miRNA expression profile of the miRNAs depicted in the Sequence Listing is obtained. However, it is not excluded that the miRNA expression profile of further miRNAs and or non-coding RNAs also determined in the biological sample from the subject including all miRNAs and/or non-coding RNAs that are determined further in the future. The expression profile of the miRNAs in the biological sample of the subject is then compared to the expression profiles of a predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a particular condition (e.g. disease). This predetermined set of miRNAs may comprise miRNAs that are characteristic for multiple sclerosis, lung cancer and/or melanoma. In case the particular condition (e.g. disease) is multiple sclerosis, a preferred set of miRNAs comprises the miRNAs depicted in FIG. 18B, e.g. at least 1, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 75, 100 miRNAs of FIG. 18B. In case the particular condition, e.g. disease, lung cancer, the preferred set of miRNAs is depicted in FIG. 10B, at least 1, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 75, 100 miRNAs of FIG. 10B. In case the particular condition, e.g. disease is melanoma, the preferred set of miRNAs is depicted in FIG. 30A, at least 1, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 75, 100 miRNAs of FIG. 30A. The method does not exclude that predetermined sets of miRNAs that are characteristic for further diseases are included into the analysis.

Further in the method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health of a subject, the determined miRNA expression profile of the biological sample from the subject is further compared to the miRNA expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a variable number of particular conditions, e.g. diseases. The prediction regarding the state of health of the subject is the more precise the more conditions, e.g. diseases, are included into the analysis. As already explained above, comparison of the miRNA expression profiles between the subject under investigation and the expression profile of the predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a particular condition, e.g. disease, is done as follows: As described above, the inventors have found that among all miRNAs that are known, a particular set of miRNAs is characteristic for a particular condition, e.g. disease. Within this set of miRNAs, the expression of a particular miRNA is deregulated compared to the expression of the same miRNA derived from a sample from another condition, e.g. a healthy subject. Deregulated in the sense of the invention may comprise an increased level of expression compared to the same miRNA derived from a sample of a different condition, e.g. a healthy person. Alternatively, deregulated may comprise a decreased level of expression of the same miRNA derived from a sample of a different condition, e.g. a healthy subject. Thus, the method comprises the comparison whether a particular miRNA expression state determined in a biological subject from the sample shows the same deregulation than the miRNA of a predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a particular condition, e.g. disease. This is done for all miRNAs in the sample from the subject for which the same miRNA has been included in the predetermined set of miRNAs characteristic for a particular condition, e.g. disease. This analysis allows the calculation for the subject under investigation regarding the probability value for each particular condition, e.g. disease, included into the investigation and collection of the highest probability values allows for a diagnosis or prognosis regarding the health state of the individual.

In a further embodiment, the method of diagnosing or predicting the state of health of a subject results in a medical decision for said individual.

In a further embodiment, the miRNA expression profile of said subject and the expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs are stored in a database.

In a further embodiment, the probability value determined for each of the particular diseases is calculated by comparing the miRNA expression profile of said object to a reference expression profile as described herein. In a further embodiment, the matrix that comprises a plurality of miRNA and/or non-coding RNAs capture probes is a microarray.

In a further embodiment, the biological sample from the subject comprises the total RNA or a subfraction of the RNA sample. The RNA may be labeled before contacting the RNA with the matrix. Alternatively, the RNA is not labeled before contacting said RNA with the matrix.

In a further embodiment of the invention, contacting of said biological sample with the matrix comprises stringent hybridisation and/or polymerase-based primer extension. Alternatively, in case the matrix is a microarray as described herein, the contacting step of the biological sample with the microarray comprises an enzymatic reaction and/or a primer extension reaction.

A further embodiment of the invention relates to an apparatus for diagnosing or predicting the state of health of a subject comprising:

(a) database for storing a plurality of expression profiles,

(b) means for generating an expression profile of a biological sample.

Preferably, the means comprises capture probes for miRNA and/or non-coding RNAs. In another preferred embodiment, the means are designed for parallel detection of a plurality of miRNAs and/or non-coding RNA molecules. The means may comprise a fluidic system, a detection system, means for input/injection of a biological sample, preferably RNA, total RNA or a subfraction of RNA from a subject, means for holding a matrix with a capture probe, means for connecting the sample input/injection matrix with a capture probe holding the fluidic system, means for hybridisation, enzymatic reactions and washing steps and/or means for heating and cooling of the reaction carried out on a matrix comprising a capture probe. In addition, the apparatus comprises a computer and an algorithm for comparing miRNA and/or non-coding RNA expression profiles and calculating the probability value.

The invention will now be illustrated by the following figures and the non-limiting experimental examples.

FIGURES

FIG. 1:

Scheme of a miRNA hybridization assay for use in the invention.

miRNA capture probes consist of 1 miRNA probe sequence stretch that is linked to support via 3′-end or alternatively by 5′-end (not depicted here)

the miRNA probe sequence stretches are complementary to miRNA target sequences

each miRNA capture probe can bind 1 miRNA target sequences

the miRNA target sequences are labeled prior to hybridisation (e.g. by biotin labeling)

FIG. 2:

Scheme of an miRNA tandem hybridization assay for use in the invention

miRNA capture probes consist of 2 DNA-based miRNA probe sequence stretches that are linked to each other by a spacer element

the miRNA probe sequence stretches are complementary to miRNA target sequences

each miRNA capture probe can bind 2 miRNA target sequences

the spacer sequence consists of 0-8 nucleotides

the miRNA target sequences are labeled prior to hybridisation (e.g. by biotin labeling)

FIG. 3:

miRNA RAKE-Assay for use in the invention (P T Nelson et al., Nature Methods, 2004, 1(2), 1)

the miRNA capture probes consist of one miRNA probe sequence stretch (green) and one elongation element (orange)

probes are oriented 5′→3′, presenting a free terminal 3′-OH

the miRNA probe sequence stretch (green) is complementary to miRNA target sequences (dark green)

the elongation sequences (orange) can be freely chosen and is typically between 1-12 nucleotides long, preferably a homomeric sequence

each miRNA capture probe can bind 1 miRNA target sequences

the miRNA target sequences are NOT labeled prior to hybridisation

Labeling occurs after hybridisation during elongation by polymerase extention reaction

Biochip is not reusable due to exonuclease treatment

FIG. 4:

miRNA MPEA-Assay for use in the invention (Vorwerk S. et al., Microfluidic-based enzymatic on-chip labeling of miRNAs, N. Biotechnol. 2008; 25(2-3):142-9. Epub 2008 Aug. 20)

the miRNA capture probes consist of one miRNA probe sequence stretch (green) and one elongation element (orange)

probes are oriented 3′→5′, presenting a free terminal 5′-OH the miRNA probe sequence stretch (green) is complementary to miRNA target sequences (dark green)

the elongation sequences (orange) can be freely chosen and is typically between 1-12 nucleotides long, preferably a homomeric sequence

each miRNA capture probe can bind 1 miRNA target sequences

the miRNA target sequences are NOT labeled prior to hybridisation

Labeling occurs after hybridisation during elongation by polymerase extention reaction

Biochip is reusable after removal of target/elongated target

FIG. 5:

miRNA capture probe design

Depicted is the design of a capture probe for the exemplary miRNA human mature miRNA let-7a for use in the various types of hybridization assays shown in FIGS. 1-4. SP=spacer element; EL=elongation element

FIG. 6:

Spacer Element.

Capture probes for use in e.g. a tandem hybridization assay as shown in FIG. 2 may comprise a spacer element SP. The spacer element represents a nucleotide sequence with n=0-12 nucleotides chosen on the basis of showing low complementarity to potential target sequences, therefore resulting in no to low degree of crosshybridization to target mixture. Preferably, n=0, i.e. there is no spacer between the 2 miRNA probe sequence stretches.

FIG. 7:

Elongation element

A capture probe, e.g. for use in a RAKE or MPEA assay as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 may include an elongation element. The elongation element comprises a nucleotide sequence with N=0-30 nucleotides chosen on the basis of showing low complementarity to potential target sequences, therefore resulting in no to low degree of crosshybridization to target mixture. Preferred is a homomeric sequence stretch -N_(n)- with n=1-30, N=A or C, or T, or G. Especially preferred is a homomeric sequence stretch -Nn- with n=1-12, N=A or C, or T, or G.

FIG. 8:

Pearson Correlation Coefficient depending on the number of elongated nucleotides in capture probes in an MPEA assay.

FIG. 9:

Diagram describing the general approach for determining miRNA signatures for use as biomarkers in disease diagnosis.

FIG. 10A:

Overview of all miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of lung cancer patients, grouped according to their mutual information (MI).

FIG. 10B:

Overview of all miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of lung cancer patients, grouped according to their results in t-tests.

FIG. 11A:

Overview of preferred miRNAs that are found to be significantly differentially regulated in blood samples of lung cancer patients.

FIG. 11B:

Overview of preferred signatures/sets of miRNAs for the diagnosis of lung cancer with corresponding performance sets (in percent: acc=accuracy, spec=specificity, sens=sensitivity).

FIG. 12:

Expression of some relevant miRNAs for diagnosis of lung cancer. The bar-chart shows for 15 deregulated miRNAs the median value of cancer samples and normal samples. Here, blue bars correspond to cancer samples while red bars to controls.

FIG. 13:

Bar diagrams showing a classification of the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of the diagnosis of lung cancer based on blood samples using different sizes of subsets of miRNAs. Blue bars represent accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of the diagnosis using the indicated biomarkers and red bars represent the results of the same experiments of random classifications. The relevant value is the population median (horizontal black lines inside the bars).

FIG. 13A: 4 biomarkers:

hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i and hsa-let-7d;

FIG. 13B: 8 biomarkers:

hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i; hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, and hsa-miR-19a;

FIG. 13C: 10 biomarkers:

hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i; hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-574-5p, and hsa-miR-324-3p;

FIG. 13D: 16 biomarkers:

hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i; hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a; hsa-miR-574-5p; hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, and has-let-7f;

FIG. 13E: 20 biomarkers:

hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i; hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a; hsa-miR-574-5p; hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7f; hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p and hsa-miR-339-5p;

FIG. 13F: 28 biomarkers:

hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i; hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a; hsa-miR-574-5p; hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7f; hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-339-5p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-26b, hsa-miR-604, hsa-miR-423-3p, hsa-miR-93*, and hsa-miR-29a;

FIG. 13G: 40 biomarkers:

hsa-miR-126, hsa-miR-423-5p, hsa-let-7i; hsa-let-7d, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-15a, hsa-miR-98, hsa-miR-19a; hsa-miR-574-5p; hsa-miR-324-3p, hsa-miR-20b, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-195, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7f; hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7g, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-339-5p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-26b, hsa-miR-604, hsa-miR-423-3p, hsa-miR-93*, hsa-miR-29a, hsa-miR-1248, hsa-miR-210, hsa-miR-19b, hsa-miR-453, hsa-miR-126*, hsa-miR-188-3p, hsa-miR-624*, hsa-miR-505*, hsa-miR-425, hsa-miR-339-3p, hsa-miR-668, and hsa-miR-363*.

FIG. 14:

Classification of lung cancer samples versus controls for two individual miRNAs (miR-126 and miR-196). Blue bars correspond to cancer samples, while red bars correspond to controls.

FIG. 15:

Lung cancer: Scatterplot of fold quotients of rt-qPCR (x-axis) and microarray experiments (y-axis).

FIG. 16:

Diagnosis of lung cancer. The mutual information of all miRNAs that have higher information content than the best permutation test (upper red line). The middle red line denotes the 95% quantile of the 1000 permutation tests and the bottom red line the mean of the permutation experiments, corresponding to the background MI.

FIG. 17:

Box plots of the classification accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of the set of 24 best miRNAs (obtained with radial basis function support vector machine). These miRNAs allow for the discrimination between blood cells of lung cancer patients and blood cells of controls with an accuracy of 95.4% [94.9%-95.9%], a specificity of 98.1%[97.3%-98.8%], and a sensitivity of 92.5%[91.8%-92.5%]. The permutation tests showed significantly decreased accuracy, specificity and sensitivity with 94.2% [47.2%-51.3%], 56.9%[54.5%-59.3%] and 40.6%[37.9%-43.4%], respectively, providing evidence that the obtained results are not due to an overfit of the statistical model on the miRNA fingerprints.

FIG. 18A:

Overview of all miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of MS patients, grouped according to their diagnostic information represented by the respective area under the curve (AUC) value in receiver-operator characteristic curves. The first 193 entries represent miRNAs with t-test p-values<0.05.

FIG. 18B:

Overview of all miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of MS patients, grouped according to their results in t-tests. The first 165 entries represent miRNAs with t-test p-values<0.05. The grouping is based on additional information derived from further patients (compared to FIG. 10A).

FIG. 18C:

A further list of 308 entries representing miRNAs with t-test p-values<0.05. The grouping is based on additional information derived from further patients (compared to FIGS. 18A and 18B).

FIG. 18D:

Overview of preferred signatures/sets of miRNAs for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (in percent: acc=accuracy, spec=specificity, sens=sensitivity).

FIG. 19:

Histogram plots of the logarithm of fold quotions, the raw t-test p-values and the adjusted p-values. The histogram plots show in the upper part a histogram of logarithmized fold changes, detailing a manifold up-regulated miRNAs in multiple sclerosis compared to healthy subjects. The middle and lower part of the Figure describe raw significance values and adjusted significance values providing evidence for a wide variety of deregulated miRNAs that are well suited for MS detection.

FIGS. 20A and 20B:

This Figure presents for two miRNAs, namely miR-145 and miR-186, the intensity values for all MS (left part) and control (right part) samples. Both miRNAs show a significant up-regulation in MS.

FIG. 21:

The Box-plots denote the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of the diagnostic test of the invention (diagnosis of multiple sclerosis). In comparison, random classification results are shown, providing evidence for a decreased classification accuracy of about 50% (corresponding to random guessing). Furthermore, the graphic shows that the true classification scenario is more stable while the random classifications entail high variances.

FIG. 22:

This graph illustrates a disease network containing nodes for each disease as blue-coloured rhombs (lung cancer, multiple sclerosis, pancreatic cancer, melanoma and Wilm tumor). Additionally, it contains differentially colored and sized nodes, representing biomarker sets. The size of these nodes represents the number of biomarkers inside the set (additionally the number of biomarkers is given in side the corresponding circles). The color represents the information on the number of diseases that are significant for the biomarkers in the set. The nodes are connected to the respective diseases, e.g., each green colored node contains biomarkers, significant for two diseases and thus each green node is connected to two disease nodes. (blue=significant to one disease, rose=significant for 3 diseases, purple=significant to 5 diseases).

FIG. 23:

The bar graphs in FIGS. 23A, B and C depict the disease probability for a “normal” individual (a), for an individual suffering from lung cancer (b) and for an individual suffering from multiple sclerosis (c).

FIG. 24:

Three-way Venn-diagram. The three circles represent the three tests used for classification (t-test, limma (empirical Bayes), Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney) The numbers inside the circles and intersections of circles denotes the number of miRNAs significant with the intersecting tests.

FIG. 25:

Fold quotients in test and validation set. This figure presents the logarithm of fold quotients of miRNAs in the independently collected melanoma populations. The correlation of both fold quotients is 0.81.

FIG. 26:

Cluster dendrogram. This dendrogram presents the clustering in control ‘C’ samples, initially collected melanoma samples ‘M’ and melanoma samples in the validation set ‘N’. This figure demonstrates that control samples seem to be different from the melanoma samples while the melanoma samples of both groups are rather mixed-up.

FIG. 27:

PCA plot. This figure shows the first versus the second principal component. Control samples can be clearly distinguished from melanoma samples while both melanoma populations do cluster together.

FIG. 28:

The blue (dark grey) boxes show the classification accuracy, specificity and sensitivity over the repeated cross-validation for the subset of 16 miRNAs in diagnosis of melanoma. The red (light grey) boxes show the respective accuracy, specificity and sensitivity for permutation test.

FIG. 29:

The logarithm of the quotient of the probability to be a melanoma sample and the probability to be a control sample for each control (C) and each melanoma (M) sample is given on the y-axis. If this quotient is greater than one (thus the logarithm greater zero) the sample is more likely to be a melanoma sample than a control sample.

FIGS. 30A and B:

Overview of miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of melanoma patients, grouped accordingly to their results in t-tests.

FIG. 31:

Overview of some miRNAs classified according to their accuracy specificity, and sensitivity of the diagnosis of melanoma.

FIG. 32:

Overview of preferred miRNAs that are found to be differentially regulated in blood samples of skin cancer patients (FIG. 32A) or melanoma patients (FIG. 32B).

FIG. 33:

Overview of preferred signatures of miRNAs for the diagnosis of skin cancer S1-42 (FIG. 33B) or melanoma M 1-84 (FIG. 33A) respectively with ace=accuracy, spec=specificity, sens=sensitivity.

FIG. 34:

General overview of the method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health employing predetermined sets of miRNAs.

FIG. 35:

General overview of the method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health employing common signature profiles.

EXAMPLES Example 1 Lung Cancer

1.1 Material and Methods

1.1.1 Samples

Blood samples were obtained with patients' informed consent. The patient samples stem from 17 patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma and normal controls. Normal samples were obtained from 19 different volunteers. More detailed information of patients and controls is given in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Detailed information on lung cancer patients and healthy control subjects blood donors male female lung cancer patients number 9 8 average age 67.4 60.6 squamous cell lung cancer 3 4 adenocarcinoma 6 1 adenosquamous carcinoma 0 1 broncholaveolar carcinoma 0 1 typical carcinoid 0 1 healthy subjects number 7 12 average age 43.3 36.7 lung cancer patients number 9 8 average age 67.4 60.6 squamous cell lung cancer 3 4 adenocarcinoma 6 1 adenosquamous carcinoma 0 1 broncholaveolar carcinoma 0 1 typical carcinoid 0 1 healthy subjects number 7 12 average age 43.3 36.7 lung cancer patients number 9 8 average age 67.4 60.6 squamous cell lung cancer 3 4 adenocarcinoma 6 1 adenosquamous carcinoma 0 1 broncholaveolar carcinoma 0 1 typical carcinoid 0 1 healthy subjects number 7 12 average age 43.3 36.7 1.1.2 miRNA Microarray Screening

Blood of lung cancer patients and volunteers without known disease was extracted in PAXgene Blood RNA tubes (BD, Franklin Lakes, N.J. USA). For each blood donor, 5 ml of peripheral blood were obtained. Total RNA was extracted from blood cells using the miRNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen GmbH, Hilden, Germany) and the RNA has been stored at −70° C. Samples were analyzed with the Geniom Realtime Analyzer (GRTA, febit gmbh, Heidelberg, Germany) using the Geniom Biochip miRNA homo sapiens.

Each array contains 7 replicates of 866 miRNAs and miRNA star sequences as annotated in the Sanger mirBase 12.0 (Griffiths-Jones, Moxon et al. 2005; Griffiths-Jones, Saini et al. 2008). Sample labelling with Biotin has been carried out either by using the miRVANA™ miRNA Labelling Kit (Applied Biosystems Inc, Foster City, Calif. USA) or by multifluidic-based enzymatic on-chip labelling of miRNAs (MPEA (Vorwerk, Ganter et al. 2008), incorporated herein by reference).

Following hybridization for 16 hours at 42° C. the biochip was washed automatically and a program for signal enhancement was processed with the GRTA. The resulting detection pictures were evaluated using the Geniom Wizard Software. For each array, the median signal intensity was extracted from the raw data file such that for each miRNA seven intensity values have been calculated corresponding to each replicate copy of mirBase on the array. Following background correction, the seven replicate intensity values of each miRNA were summarized by their median value. To normalize the data across different arrays, quantile normalization (Bolstad, Irizarry et al. 2003) was applied and all further analyses were carried out using the normalized and background subtracted intensity values.

1.1.3 Statistical Analysis

After having verified the normal distribution of the measured data, parametric t-tests (unpaired, two-tailed) were carried out for each miRNA separately, to detect miRNAs that show a different behavior in different groups of blood donors. The resulting p-values were adjusted for multiple testing by Benjamini-Hochberg (Hochberg 1988; Benjamini and Hochberg 1995) adjustment. Moreover, the Mutual Information (MI) (Shannon 1984) was computed as a measure to access the diagnostic value of single miRNA biomarkers. To this end, all biomarkers were transformed to z-scores and binned in three bins before the MI values of each biomarker, and the information whether the marker has been measured from a normal or lung cancer sample, was computed. In addition to the single biomarker analysis classification of samples using miRNA patterns was carried out using Support Vector Machines (SVM, (Vapnik 2000)) as implemented in the R (Team 2008) e1071 package. In detail, different kernel (linear, polynomial, sigmoid, radial basis function) Support Vector Machines were evaluated, where the cost parameter was sampled from 0.01 to 10 in decimal powers. The measured miRNA profiles were classified using 100 repetitions of standard 10-fold cross-validation. As a subset selection technique a filter approach based on t-test was applied. In detail, the s miRNAs with lowest p-values were computed on the training set in each fold of the cross validation, where s was sampled from 1 to 866. The respective subset was used to train the SVM and to carry out the prediction of the test samples. As result, the mean accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity were calculated together with the 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) for each subset size. To check for overtraining permutation tests were applied. Here the class labels were sampled randomly and classifications were carried out using the permuted class labels. All statistical analyzes were performed using R (Team 2008).

1.2 Results

1.2.1 miRNA Experiments

The expression of 866 miRNAs and miRNA star sequences was analyzed in blood cells of 17 patients with NSCLC. As a control blood cells of 19 volunteers without known disease were used (see also Materials and Methods).

Following RNA isolation and labeling by miRVANA™ miRNA Labeling Kit, the miRNA expression profiles were measured by the Geniom Bioship miRNA homo sapiens in the GRTA (febit gmbh, Heidelberg). Following intensity value computation and quantile normalization of the miRNA profiles (Bolstad, Irizarry et al. 2003), a mean correlation value of 0.97 for technical replicates was determined by using purchased total RNA from Ambion (four heart and four liver replicates). For the biological replicates the different tumor samples were compared between each other and the different normal samples between each other. The biological replicates showed a mean correlation of 0.87 and a variance of 0.009.

1.2.2 Ruling Out the Influence of Age and Gender

To cross-check that age and gender do not have an influence on our analysis, t-tests were computed for the normal samples. In the case of males versus females there was no statistically significant deregulated miRNA. The most significant miRNA, hsa-miR-423, showed an adjusted significance level of 0.78.

To test for the influence of donor age the profiles obtained from samples obtained from the oldest versus youngest patients were compared by splitting the group in half based on age. Here, the most significant miRNA, miR-890, obtained an adjusted p-value of 0.87. As for gender, there were no deregulated miRNAs, thus providing evidence that age and gender do not have a substantial influence on the miRNA profiles.

1.2.3 Single Deregulated miRNAs

Hypothesis testing was applied to identify miRNAs deregulated in the blood cells of lung cancer patients as compared to the blood cells of the controls. Following verification of an approximately normal distribution, two-tailed unpaired t-tests were performed for each miRNA. The respective p-values were adjusted for multiple testing by the Benjamini-Hochberg approach (Hochberg 1988; Benjamini and Hochberg 1995). In total 27 miRNAs significantly deregulated in blood cells of lung cancer patients as compared to the controls were detected. A complete list of deregulated miRNAs is given in the tables in FIGS. 10A and 10B. The miRNAs that were most significantly deregulated included hsa-miR-126 with a p-value of 0.00003, hsa-let-7d with a p-value of 0.003, hsa-let-7i with a p-value of 0.003, and hsa-miR-423 with a p-value of 0.001 (FIG. 12). Other members of the let-7 family that were also found to be deregulated included hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7f, hsa-let-7g and hsa-let-7a. Besides miR-423, all above mentioned miRNAs were down-regulated in blood cells of lung cancer patients compared to blood cells of healthy subjects indicating an overall decreased miRNA repertoire.

To validate the findings, the miRNA profiling was repeated using an enzymatic on-chip labeling technique termed MPEA (Microfluidic-based enzymatic on-chip labeling of miRNAs) [24]. For this control experiment, 4 out of the 17 lung cancer patients and 10 of the controls were used. Hereby, 100 differentially regulated miRNAs were detected. The miRNAs that were most significantly deregulated include hsa-miR-1253 with a p-value of 0.001, hsa-miR-126 with a p-value of 0.006, hsa-let-7d with a p-value of 0.006, and hsa-let-7f with a p-value of 0.006. Of the previously identified 27 miRNAs 12 were detected to be significant in the second experiment, while the remaining miRNAs showed increased p-values. The correlation of fold changes was 0.62. Also other members of the let-7 family were confirmed as deregulated in blood cells of lung cancer patients. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the majority of the deregulated miRNAs were down-regulated in patients' blood samples. Here, 62% of the deregulated miRNAs showed decreased intensity values in lung cancer samples.

As a further control experiment an expression analysis by qRT-PCR was performed. As a test sample the fold changes of has-miR-106b, miR-98, miR-140-3p, let-7d, mir-126, and miR-22 were analyzed in blood cells of eight tumor patients and five controls. The fold quotients detected by the Geniom Biochip experiments agreed very well with the qRT-PCR experiments, as demonstrated by an excellent R² value of 0.994. The fold quotients are presented as a scatterplot together with the R² value and the regression line in FIG. 15.

1.2.4 Diagnostic Value of miRNA Biomarkers

Mutual Information (MI) (Shannon 1984) is an adequate measure to estimate the overall diagnostic information content of single biomarkers (Keller, Ludwig et al. 2006). In the present study, Mutual Information is considered as the reduction in uncertainty about the class labels ‘0’ for controls and ‘1’ for tumor samples due to the knowledge of the miRNA expression. The higher the value of the MI of a miRNA, the higher is the diagnostic content of the respective miRNA.

The MI of each miRNA with the class labels was computed. First, a permutation test was carried out to determine the background noise of the miRNAs, e.g. the random information content of each miRNA. 1000 miRNAs (with replacements) were randomly selected and the class labels were sampled for each miRNA. These permutation tests yielded a mean MI value of 0.029, a 95% quantile of 0.096 and a value of 0.217 for the highest random MI. Second, the MI values were calculated for the comparison between the miRNAs in blood cells of tumor patients and controls. The overall comparison of the 866 miRNAs yielded significantly increased MI values with a two-tailed p-value of ≦10⁻¹⁰ as shown by an unpaired Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test (Wilcoxon 1945; Mann and Wilcoxon 1947). The miRNA hsa-miR-361-5p showed the highest MI with a value of 0.446. The miRNAs with the best significance values as computed by the t-test, namely hsa-miR-126 and hsa-miR-98, were also among the miRNAs showing the highest MI values. In total 37 miRNAs with MI values higher than the highest of 1000 permuted miRNAs and 200 miRNAs with MI values higher than the 95% quantile were detected (FIG. 16). A complete list of miRNAs, the respective MI and the enrichment compared to the background MI is provided in the table in FIG. 10A.

1.2.5 Evaluating Complex Fingerprints

Even single miRNAs with highest MI values are not sufficient to differentiate between blood cells of tumor patients as compared to controls with high specificity. For example, the has-miR-126 separates blood cells of tumor patients from blood cells of healthy individuals with a specificity of 68%, only. In order to improve the classification accuracy the predictive power of multiple miRNAs was combined by using statistical learning techniques. In detail, Support Vector Machines with different kernels (linear, polynomial, sigmoid, radial basis function) were applied to the data and a hypothesis test was carried out based subset selection as described in Material and Methods. To gain statistical significance 100 repetitions of 10-fold cross validation were carried out. Likewise, 100 repetitions for the permutation tests were computed.

The best results were obtained with radial basis function Support Vector Machines and a subset of 24 miRNAs. These miRNAs allowed for the discrimination between blood cells of lung tumor patients and blood cells of controls with an accuracy of 95.4% [94.9%-95.9%], a specificity of 98.1% [97.3%-98.8%], and a sensitivity of 92.5% [91.8%-92.5%]. The permutation tests showed significantly decreased accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity with 49.2% [47.2%-51.3%], 56.9% [54.5%-59.3%] and 40.6% [37.9%-43.4%], respectively (FIG. 17), providing evidence that the obtained results are not due to an overfit of the statistical model on the miRNA fingerprints.

1.3 Discussion

While complex miRNA expression patterns have been reported for a huge variety of human tumors, information there was only one study analyzing miRNA expression in blood cells derived from tumor patients. In the following the present miRNA expression profiling is related to both the miRNA expression in blood cells and in cancer cells of non-small cell lung cancer patients. A significant down-regulation of has-miR-126 was found that was recently detected in blood cells of healthy individuals, but not in blood cells of lung cancer patients (Chen, Ba et al. 2008). Down-regulation of has-miR-126 was also found in lung cancer tissue in this study. Functional studies on has-miR-126 revealed this miRNA as a regulator of the endothelial expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1), which is an intercellular adhesion molecule expressed by endothelial cells focuses on the identification of miRNAs in serum of patients with cancer and other diseases or healthy controls. Since most miRNAs are expressed in both, serum and blood cells of healthy controls, most serum miRNAs are likely derived from circulating blood cells. Since there was only a weak correlation between the miRNA expression in serum and blood cell, miRNA expression appears to be deregulated in either serum or blood cells of cancer patients. The present experimental example focused on the analysis of miRNA expression in blood cells of non-small cell lung cancer patients and healthy controls. Significant downregulation of has-miR-126 was found that was recently detected in blood cells of healthy individuals, but not in blood cells of lung cancer patients (Harris, YamakuchiChen, Ba et al. 2008). Downregulation of has-miR-126 was also found in lung cancer tissue (Yanaihara, Caplen et al. 2006). Functional studies on has-miR-126 revealed this miRNA as regulator of the endothelial expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1), which is an intercellular adhesion molecule expressed by endothelial cells (Harris, Yamakuchi et al. 2008). hsa-miR-126 is also reported to be an inhibitor of cell invasion in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines, and down-regulation of this miRNA 126 might be a mechanism of lung cancer cells to evade these inhibitory effects (Crawford, Brawner et al. 2008). Members of the has-let-7 family that were found down-regulated in the present invention were the first miRNAs reported as de-regulated in lung cancer (Johnson, Grosshans et al. 2005). This down-regulation of the let-7 family in lung cancer was confirmed by several independent studies (Takamizawa, Konishi et al. 2004; Stahlhut Espinosa and Slack 2006; Tong 2006; Zhang, Wang et al. 2007; Williams 2008). The present data are also in agreement with a recent study showing the down-regulation of has-let-7a, has-let-7d, has-let-7f, has-let-7g, and has-let-7i in blood cells of lung cancer patients (Chen, Ba et al. 2008). Notably, down-regulation of let-7 in lung cancer was strongly associated with poor clinical outcome (Takamizawa, Konishi et al. 2004). The let-7 family members negatively regulate oncogene RAS (Johnson, Grosshans et al. 2005). The miRNA has-miR-22 that showed a high MI value and up-regulation in the present study, was recently also reported to be up-regulated in blood cells of lung cancer patients (Chen, Ba et al. 2008). The miRNA has-miR-19a that also showed a high MI value and up-regulation in the present study was reported to be up-regulated in lung cancer tissue (Hayashita, Osada et al. 2005; Calin and Croce 2006). In contrast, has-miR-20a, which is significantly down-regulated in the present experiments, was reported as up-regulated in lung cancer tissue (Hayashita, Osada et al. 2005; Cahn and Croce 2006). The up-regulation of has-miR-20a was found in small-cell lung cancer cell lines, the present study investigated only NSCLC. In summary, there is a high degree of consistency between miRNA expression found in the peripheral blood cells of lung cancer patients and miRNA expression in lung cancer tissue (Takamizawa, Konishi et al. 2004; Hayashita, Osada et al. 2005; Lu, Getz et al. 2005; Calin and Croce 2006; Stahlhut Espinosa and Slack 2006; Tong 2006; Volinia, Calin et al. 2006; Yanaihara, Caplen et al. 2006; Zhang, Wang et al. 2007; Williams 2008).

Some of the deregulated miRNAs identified in the present invention are also reported as de-regulated in other cancer entities, e.g. has-miR-346 in gastritic cancer, has-miR-145 in bladder cancer, and has-miR-19a in hepatocellular carcinoma and B-cell leukemia (Alvarez-Garcia and Miska 2005; He, Thomson et al. 2005; Feitelson and Lee 2007; Guo, Huang et al. 2008; Ichimi, Enokida et al. 2009). In addition, miRNAs with high diagnostic potential e.g. high MI value, were found that were not yet related to cancer as for example has-miR-527 or has-mir-361-5p that were both up-regulated in blood cells of lung cancer patients.

Besides the deregulation of single miRNAs, the overall expression pattern of miRNAs in peripheral blood cells of lung cancer patients were analyzed in comparison to the pattern in blood cells of healthy controls. Recently, Chen et al. (Chen, Ba et al. 2008) reported a high correlation of 0.9205 between miRNA profiles in serum and miRNA profiles in blood cells, both in healthy individuals. The correlation of the miRNA profiles between serum and blood cells in lung cancer patients were significantly lower (0.4492). These results are indicative of deregulated miRNAs in blood and/or serum of patients and are in agreement with the present data that show the deregulation of miRNAs in the blood cells of lung carcinoma patients. These deregulated miRNAs can be used to differentiate patients with lung cancer from normal controls with high specificity and sensitivity. This is the first evidence for the diagnostic potential of miRNA expression profiles in peripheral blood cells of cancer patients and healthy individuals.

Example 2 Multiple Sclerosis

2.1 Material and Methods

2.1.1 Samples

Blood samples were obtained with patients' informed consent.

2.1.2 miRNA Microarray Screening

Blood of MS patients and volunteers without known disease was extracted in PAXgene Blood RNA tubes (BD, Franklin Lakes, N.J. USA). For each blood donor, 5 ml of peripheral blood were obtained, Total RNA was extracted from blood cells using the miRNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen GmbH, Hilden, Germany) and the RNA has been stored at −70° C. Samples were analyzed with the Geniom Realtime Analyzer (GRTA, febit GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany) using the Geniom Biochip miRNA homo sapiens. Each array contains 7 replicates of 866 miRNAs and miRNA star sequences as annotated in the Sanger mirBase 12.0 Sample labelling with Biotine has been carried out by multifluidic-based enzymatic on-chip labelling of miRNAs (MPEA).

Following hybridization for 16 hours at 42° C. the biochip was washed automatically and a program for signal enhancement was processed with the GRTA. The resulting detection pictures were evaluated using the Geniom Wizard Software. For each array, the median signal intensity was extracted from the raw data file such that for each miRNA seven intensity values have been calculated corresponding to each replicate copy of mirBase on the array. Following background correction, the seven replicate intensity values of each miRNA were summarized by their median value. To normalize the data across different arrays, quantile normalization was applied and all further analyses were carried out using the normalized and background subtracted intensity values.

2.1.3 Statistical Analysis

After having verified the normal distribution of the measured data, a parametric t-test (unpaired, two-tailed) was carried out for each miRNA separately, to detect miRNAs that show a different behavior in different groups of blood donors. The resulting p-values were adjusted for multiple testing by Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment.

To find relations of the detected miRNAs to other diseases the Human miRNA Disease Database was used. In more detail, a bipartite network was built where nodes correspond either to a miRNA or to a diseases. Only edges between miRNA and diseases nodes are allowed, where an edge between miRNA A and disease B means that the miRNA A is differentially regulated in disease B. Since for MS no deregulated miRNAs are known the node “MultipleSclerosis” was added to this network and linked to all miRNAs that were significant in the analysis.

In addition to the single biomarker analysis and network analysis, classification of samples using miRNA patterns was carried out using Support Vector Machines (SVM,) as implemented in the R e1071 package. In detail, different kernel (linear, polynomial, sigmoid, radial basis function) Support Vector Machines were evaluated, where the cost parameter was sampled from 0.01 to 10 in decimal powers. The measured miRNA profiles were classified using 100 repetitions of standard 10-fold cross-validation. As a subset selection technique we applied a filter approach based on t-test. In detail, the s miRNAs with lowest p-values were computed on the training set in each fold of the cross validation, where s was sampled from 1 to 866. The respective subset was used to train the SVM and to carry out the prediction of the test samples. As result, the mean accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity were calculated together with the 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) for each subset size. To check for overtraining permutation tests were applied. Here the class labels were sampled randomly and classifications were carried out using the permuted class labels. All statistical analyzes were performed using R.

2.2 Results

2.2.1 miRNA Experiments

The expression of 866 miRNAs and miRNA star sequences was analyzed in blood cells of 22 patients with MS. As a control blood cells of 22 volunteers without known disease were used.

Following RNA isolation and the novel on-chip labeling technique, the miRNA expression profiles were measured by the Geniom Bioship miRNA homo sapiens in the GRTA (febit GmbH, Heidelberg). Following intensity value computation and quantile normalization of the miRNA profiles, a mean correlation value of 0.97 for technical replicates was determined by using purchased total RNA from Ambion (four heart and four liver replicates). For the biological replicates the different tumor samples were compared between each other and the different normal samples were compared between each other. The biological replicates showed a mean correlation of 0.87 and a variance of 0.009.

2.2.2 Ruling Out the Influence of Age and Gender

To cross-check that age and gender do not have an influence on our analysis, t-tests for the normal samples were computed. In the case of males versus females there were no statistically significant deregulated miRNA. The most significant miRNA, hsa-miR-423, showed an adjusted significance level of 0.78.

To test for the influence of donor age the profiles obtained from samples obtained from the oldest versus youngest patients were compared by splitting the group in half based on age. Here, the most significant miRNA, miR-890, obtained an adjusted p-value of 0.87. As for gender, there were no deregulated miRNAs, thus providing evidence that age and gender do not have a substantial influence on the miRNA profiles.

2.2.3 Single Deregulated miRNAs

Hypothesis testing was applied to identify miRNAs deregulated in the blood cells of MS patients as compared to the blood cells of the controls. Following verification of an approximately normal distribution, two-tailed unpaired t-tests were performed for each miRNA. The respective p-values were adjusted for multiple testing by the Benjamini-Hochberg approach. In total 193 miRNAs significantly deregulated in blood cells of MS patients as compared to the controls were detected. Histogram plots of the logarithm of fold quotients, the raw t-test p-values and the adjusted p-values are presented in FIG. 18B. A complete list of deregulated miRNAs is given in the Table in FIG. 18B. The miRNAs that were most significantly deregulated included hsa-miR-145 (5.25*10⁻⁹), hsa-miR-186 (3.42*10⁻⁷), hsa-miR-664 (1.20*10⁻⁵), hsa-miR-20b (1.98*10⁻⁵), hsa-miR-584 (1.98*10⁻⁵), hsa-miR-223 (2.14*10⁻⁵), hsa-miR-422a (2.87*10⁻⁵), hsa-miR-142-3p (3.01′10⁻⁵) and hsa-let-7c (7.68*10⁻⁵). For the two best miRNAs, hsa-miR-186 and hsa-miR-145, bar-plots showing the intensity values for all MS and control samples are presented in FIGS. 20 a and 20 b.

Notably, all the above-mentioned miRNAs showed a significant up-regulation in MS besides miR-20b. Table 2 shows the 24 most deregulated miRNAs. Of these 91.7% were up-regulated in MS while 8.3% were down-regulated, providing evidence for an overall up-regulation of miRNAs in MS.

Additionally for the best miRNAs receiver operator characteristic curves (ROC) and the area under the curve value (AUC) were computed. The higher the AUC, the better the miRNA biomarker is, where a maximal value of 1 for miRNA A would mean that the highest control reactivity would be lower than the lowest MS intensity of miRNA A. For the best miRNA hsa-miR-145 an AUC value of 0.96 was obtained and four of the 44 samples were wrong classified (2 Ms sera as controls, so-called False Negatives, and 2 controls classified as MS samples, so-called False Positives).

TABLE 2 24 most significant miRNAs for MS median median Log miRNA g1 g2 qmedian (qmedian) raw Pval adj. Pval AUC hsa-miR-145 602.719 174.344 3.457 1.240 6.08E−12 5.25E−09 0.962 hsa-miR-186 265.295 77.719 3.414 1.228 7.91E−10 3.42E−07 0.961 hsa-miR-664 707.168 285.703 2.475 0.906 4.17E−08 1.20E−05 0.916 hsa-miR-584 332.922 106.969 3.112 1.135 1.15E−07 1.98E−05 0.897 hsa-miR-20b 2689.207 5810.586 0.463 -0.770 9.83E−08 1.98E−05 0.056 hsa-miR-223 5118.574 2579.250 1.985 0.685 1.49E−07 2.14E−05 0.964 hsa-miR-422a 373.953 189.219 1.976 0.681 2.32E−07 2.87E−05 0.870 hsa-miR-142-3p 215.375 40.516 5.316 1.671 2.79E−07 3.01E−05 0.934 hsa-let-7c 1948.098 950.223 2.050 0.718 8.00E−07 7.68E−05 0.889 hsa-miR-151-3p 1021.363 571.344 1.788 0.581 1.81E−06 0.000156587 0.883 hsa-miR-491-5p 241.000 153.563 1.569 0.451 2.05E−06 0.000160884 0.876 hsa-miR-942 112.969 38.094 2.966 1.087 5.09E−06 0.000366452 0.882 hsa-miR-361-3p 325.766 181.375 1.796 0.586 5.77E−06 0.000383235 0.852 hsa-miR-22* 178.938 103.844 1.723 0.544 6.24E−06 0.000385004 0.868 hsa-miR-140-5p 105.063 48.250 2.177 0.778 7.99E−06 0.000399262 0.874 hsa-miR-216a 202.219 315.828 0.640 −0.446 8.24E−06 0.000399262 0.060 hsa-miR-1275 210.203 116.969 1.797 0.586 7.04E−06 0.000399262 0.907 hsa-miR-367 92.500 160.375 0.577 −0.550 8.32E−06 0.000399262 0.138 hsa-miR-146a 470.359 271.342 1.733 0.550 9.61E−06 0.000437137 0.862 hsa-miR-598 140.531 91.000 1.544 0.435 1.29E−05 0.000556416 0.841 hsa-miR-613 60.781 19.000 3.199 1.163 1.67E−05 0.000687276 0.862 hsa-miR-18a* 490.891 233.672 2.101 0.742 2.02E−05 0.000794863 0.876 hsa-miR-302b 54.469 21.406 2.545 0.934 2.23E−05 0.000838901 0.855 hsa-miR-501-5p 139.938 79.563 1.759 0.565 2.60E−05 0.000936279 0.866 2.2.4 Relation to Other Diseases

Since there is no evidence for de-regulated miRNAs in MS patients in the literature, it was checked whether the detected 193 miRNAs are already related to other human diseases. To this end, the Human microRNA Disease Database (HMDD) was grasped. This comprehensive database contains for over 100 human diseases information on deregulated miRNAs. Altogether, over 2000 relations are included in the HMDD. To analyze the respective data, a bipartite graph was created were nodes are either miRNAs or human diseases, and edges between a miRNA and a disease mean that the respective miRNA is deregulated in the respective disease.

Thereby, a network containing 452 nodes was created, 137 belonging to diseases and 315 to miRNAs. The network also contained 1617 unique edges (some relations between miRNAs and diseases have been published in multiple papers). As mentioned previously, MS is not included as disease in this network. Thus, the network was modified as followings: a disease node “MultipleSclerosis” was added and edges between this node and all significant miRNAs were created. Additionally, all disease nodes that are not linked to any MS miRNA and all miRNAs belonging only to removed disease nodes were removed. The novel network thus contains only those miRNAs that are significant in MS and other diseases and those that are significant in MS, only. This shrunken network contained 77 disease nodes together with the 193 significant miRNAs. Remarkably, only 43 of the 193 (22%) miRNAs were related to a disease other than MS while the remaining 78% miRNAs were only connected to MS. Of these 146 miRNAs, 36 were so-called star sequences.

Altogether, these results provide strong evidence that the detected complex miRNA profile is not disease specific but rather specific for MS.

2.2.5 Evaluating Complex Fingerprints

As discussed in Section 2.2.3, the best miRNA suffices to classify 20 of 22 MS samples and 20 of 22 control samples correctly. This obviously corresponds to a high specificity, sensitivity and accuracy of 90.8%. However, these results are not validated by a re-sampling technique as bootstrapping or cross-validation and are based only on a single marker.

In order to improve the already high classification accuracy and the statistical reliability the predictive power of multiple miRNAs was combined by using statistical learning techniques. In detail, Support Vector Machines with different kernels (linear, polynomial, sigmoid, radial basis function) were applied to the data and a hypothesis test based subset selection was carried out as described in Material and Methods. To gain statistical significance 100 repetitions of 10-fold cross validation were carried out. Likewise, 100 repetitions for the permutation tests were computed where samples with randomly assigned class labels were investigated.

The best results were obtained with radial basis function Support Vector Machines and a subset of 24 miRNAs (see Table 2). These miRNAs allowed for the discrimination between blood samples of MS patients and blood samples of controls with an accuracy of 95.5% a specificity of 95.5%, and a sensitivity of 95.5%.

The permutation tests showed significantly decreased accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity rates, as detailed in FIG. 21. These results show that the obtained results are not due to an overfit of the statistical model on the miRNA fingerprints.

Additionally, it was checked whether the relevant miRNAs were linked to one of over 100 other diseases as annotated in the HMDD. Remarkable over 80% of the respective miRNAs have not been linked to other diseases, so far.

Example 3 Melanoma

3.1 Material and Methods

3.1.1 Samples

Participants of this study have given written informed consent. The patient blood samples stem from 35 patients with melanoma collected from two different groups and 21 normal controls. Normal samples were obtained from 21 different volunteers.

The patient samples include samples from various melanoma stages including from early stage (stage I) to late state melanomas (stage IV).

The present invention enables therefore not only a diagnosis (e.g. early diagnosis) method but also a method for prognosis or progression of the disease.

3.1.2 miRNA Extraction and Microarray Screening

Blood of melanoma patients has been extracted as previously described (see above).

Samples were analyzed with the Geniom Realtime Analyzer (GRTA, febit gmbh, Heidelberg, Germany) using the Geniom Biochip miRNA homo sapiens. Each array contains 7 replicates of 866 miRNAs and miRNA star sequences as annotated in the Sanger miRBase 12.0. Sample labeling with Biotine has been carried out by microfluidic-based enzymatic on-chip labeling of miRNAs (MPEA).

Following hybridization for 16 hours at 42° C. the biochip was washed automatically and a program for signal enhancement was processed with the GRTA. The resulting detection pictures were evaluated using the Geniom Wizard Software. For each array, the median signal intensity was extracted from the raw data file such that for each miRNA seven intensity values have been calculated corresponding to each replicate copy of miRBase on the array. Following background correction, the seven replicate intensity values of each miRNA were summarized by their median value. To normalize the data across different arrays, quantile normalization was applied and all further analyses were carried out using the normalized and background subtracted intensity values.

3.1.3 Measures for Single Biomarker Analysis

First, we evaluated the measured biomarker profiles in order to detect miRNAs that show a different behavior in different groups of blood donors. To this end, we applied different statistical measures to monitor differences between these measures. The set of approaches contains parametric t-test (unpaired, two-tailed), Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test (unpaired, two-tailed), a linear model with p-values computed by an empirical Bayes approach, the area under the receiver operator characteristics curve (AUC) and fold quotients. For all hypothesis tests, the resulting p-values were adjusted for multiple testing by Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment.

The detected sets of relevant biomarkers then have been compared using Venn diagrams.

3.1.4 Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis

In order to detect clusters of miRNAs and samples, we carried out a hierarchical clustering approach. In more detail, we applied bottom up complete linkage clustering and used the Euclidian distance measure. In addition to this approach, we also carried out a standard principal component analysis (PCA) and provide scatter plots of the first versus second PC.

3.1.5 Classification Analysis

In addition to the single biomarker analysis and unsupervised clustering we also carried out classification of samples using miRNA patterns by using Support Vector Machines (SVM) as implemented in the R e1071 package. In detail, different kernel (linear, polynomial, sigmoid, radial basis function) Support Vector Machines have been evaluated, where the cost parameter was sampled from 0.01 to 10 in decimal powers. The measured miRNA profiles were classified using 100 repetitions of standard 10-fold cross-validation. As a subset selection technique we applied a filter approach based on t-test. In detail, the s miRNAs with lowest p-values were computed on the training set in each fold of the cross validation, where s was sampled from 1 to 866. The respective subset was used to train the SVM and to carry out the prediction of the test samples. As result, the mean accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity were calculated together with the 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) for each subset size. To check for overtraining we applied permutation tests. Here we sampled the class labels randomly and carried out classifications using the permuted class labels. All statistical analyzes were performed using R.

3.2 Results

As described by McCarthy et al., there exists a disconnect between the mathematical and biological concepts of differential expression. On the one hand, fold-change cutoffs do not take the biological variability into account or guarantee reproducibility. In contrast, commonly applied hypothesis test are known to give high false discovery rates (FDRs) and are, especially in smaller samples, only weakly related to fold-changes. To gain improved statistical significance we decided to apply different scores to report deregulated miRNAs. First, we report differences between the detected sets and then report a consensus approach for differentially regulated miRNAs.

At first, we compared the three hypothesis tests as described in the materials and methods section. We considered all miRNAs with adjusted p-value of below 0.001 to be significant. The result of the three tests is presented as three-way Venn Diagram in FIG. 24. Here, 117 miRNAs were detected in all three tests, 35 additional for WMW test and t-test while not for empirical bayes approach, 22 for empirical bayes and for WMW test and 4 in the empirical bayes test and t-test. Taken together, these data show that the tests show a high concordance, given with 117 miRNAs the majority to be significant in all three tests. Our analysis showed also that the t-test detected the highest number of deregulated miRNAs. Interpreting the significant miRNAs carefully, we encountered problems of these tests that may lead to the reported high False Discovery Rates: 1) Given larger sample numbers and a low data variance, slight differences already lead to a significantly deregulated miRNA. 2) Related to this problem, given miRNAs that are low abundant and that can be differentiated only hardly from background noise may also lead to false positive biomarkers. To overcome this problem, we added two filters. The first one is a fold quotient filter, i.e., miRNAs must be changed at least 2-fold in their expression level. The second filter is a minimal expression level filter, i.e., the median value of the samples for one group must exceed 100. Both thresholds have been determined empirically. In summary, the combined analysis reported 51 deregulated miRNAs, of these, 21 were down-regulated in melanoma while 30 were up-regulated. All miRNAs are shown, sorted by their AUC value, in Table 3.

Most notably, the detected miRNAs usually are annotated as cancer related miRNAs. For example, miR-216a, the miRNA with second best AUC value has been described to be down-regulated in lung-neoplasms and is likewise more than 2-fold down-regulated in melanoma. miR-186, the up-regulated miRNA with highest AUC has been described to be up-regulated in pancreatic cancer. However, most studies published so far are significantly different in two points of our study: first, usually cancer tissue samples are profiled and second, only a subset of miRNAs has been screened in these studies, either by using qRT-PCR or array based techniques relying on older miRBase versions. Thus, our screening also showed significantly deregulated miRNAs that are not cancer or disease regulated since these have not been included in screenings so far. Only one example is miR-1280 that is up-regulated 2.5-fold in our studies.

Given the set of de-regulated miRNAs, we asked whether the fold quotients are the same in both measured miRNA populations. As already described, the 35 melanoma samples come from two different sources, split-up in a ratio of 1/3 versus 2/3, given 24 miRNAs initially collected and additional 11 miRNAs measured as independent validation set.

To reduce the noise in this analysis, we only considered miRNAs where both groups exceed a minimal expression level of 50, computed for both melanoma groups the fold quotient versus the controls and computed the correlation. The scatter-plot in FIG. 25 presents the logarithm of fold quotient of the initial group on the x-axis and of the validation group on the y-axis. The correlation of fold quotients between both melanoma populations was as high as 0.81, underlining the excellent reproducibility of the miRNA profiling.

As next analysis, we asked whether the miRNA profiles could be clustered together. To this end, we applied hierarchical clustering as described in the Methods section. Since most of all miRNAs contribute rather noise than true signals to the clustering, we used only the 50 miRNAs with the overall highest data variance for clustering. The result is shown as dendrogram in FIG. 26. In this figure, control samples are denoted with ‘C’ while melanoma samples are denoted with ‘M’ for the initially screened set and ‘N’ for the validation set. This figure impressively demonstrates that control samples seem to be different from the melanoma samples while the melanoma samples of both groups do not cluster together but are rather mixed-up. Splitting the dendrogram in two groups and computing a contingency table we found that 21 of 21 controls belong to cluster 1 and 35 of 35 melanoma samples belong to cluster 2. Computing a significance value for this clustering using two-tailed Fisher's Exact test, we obtained a p-value of approx. 3*10⁻¹⁶.

To provide a low-dimensional visualization of the high-dimensional data, we carried out a principal component analysis, as described in the Materials and Methods section. Investigating the eigenvalues of the first principal components, we found that the first component contained by far the highest overall data variance while the first and second principal component together contributed to approximately half of the overall variance. A plot of the first versus the second principal component is presented in FIG. 27. This plot contains the same labels as the cluster dendrogram in FIG. 26, i.e., control samples are denoted with ‘C’ while melanoma samples are denoted with ‘M’ or ‘N’ for the test and validation set respectively. This representation, compute using principal component analysis, confirmed the results as computed by hierarchical clustering. The control samples can be well differentiated from the melanoma samples while both melanoma populations mix up.

Now, we asked whether the results of the unsupervised cluster analysis can also be reproduced by a supervised statistical learning approach. To this end, we carried out a support vector machine classification together with a feature selection relying on t-test p-values. In more detail, we applied radial basis function support vector machines that have been evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation. The cross-validation runs have been repeated 100 times in order to get an estimation of the classification variance. To cross-check for data over-fit, we carried out 100 permutation tests, i.e., we applied the same statistical approach to a data set where the class labels melanoma and cancer have been randomly assigned.

The best classification accuracy has been obtained by using the subset of 16 miRNAs consisting of hsa-miR-186, hsa-let-7d*, hsa-miR-18a*, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-664, hsa-miR-501-5p, hsa-miR-378*, hsa-miR-29c*, hsa-miR-1280, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-1249, hsa-miR-328, hsa-miR-422a, hsa-miR-30d, and hsa-miR-17*. By using these miRNAs, our classification approach reached a high accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of 97.4%, 95% and 98.9%. The results of all 100 cross-validation runs and 100 permutation tests are provided as box-plots in FIG. 28. Here, the blue (dark grey) boxes show the results of the cross-validation while the red (light grey) boxes show the significantly decreased (t-test p-value of <10⁻¹⁰) accuracy of the permutation tests.

In FIG. 29, one of the classification results is presented. Here, the logarithm of the quotient of probabilities to be diseased and the probability to be a control are shown. The probabilities have been computed by the R implementation of the libsvm relying on the distance of the samples from the separating hyperplane. If the quotient of the probabilities is greater than one (thus the logarithm is greater zero) the sample is more likely to be a melanoma sample than a control sample. FIG. 29 clearly outlines that in general melanoma samples have logarithmized quotients of greater 0 while control samples have quotients of below 0.

TABLE 3 51 most significant miRNAs regulated in melanoma median median fold wmw limma melanom normal change adjp ttest adjp adjp AUC hsa-miR-452* 189.7 633.3 0.3 0.000000 0.000460 0.000000 0.992 hsa-miR-216a 89.1 197.3 0.5 0.000001 0.000017 0.000039 0.978 hsa-miR-186 206.5 26.2 7.9 0.000001 0.000000 0.000000 0.973 hsa-let-7d* 178.6 37.7 4.7 0.000001 0.000000 0.000000 0.960 hsa-miR-17* 433.5 941.8 0.5 0.000001 0.000000 0.000000 0.960 hsa-miR-646 150.9 350.6 0.4 0.000001 0.000383 0.000000 0.959 hsa-miR-217 86.3 183.8 0.5 0.000001 0.000548 0.000003 0.957 hsa-miR-621 178.6 486.7 0.4 0.000001 0.000106 0.000000 0.954 hsa-miR-517* 109.9 230.8 0.5 0.000001 0.000215 0.000000 0.953 hsa-miR-99a 217.3 85.0 2.6 0.000002 0.000000 0.000000 0.947 hsa-miR-664 557.0 173.0 3.2 0.000002 0.000000 0.000000 0.944 hsa-miR-593* 175.4 356.7 0.5 0.000002 0.000267 0.000000 0.942 hsa-miR-18a* 397.4 135.0 2.9 0.000002 0.000000 0.000000 0.936 hsa-miR-145 358.0 94.6 3.8 0.000002 0.000000 0.000000 0.936 hsa-miR-1280 6779.6 2676.2 2.5 0.000002 0.000000 0.000000 0.933 hsa-let-7i* 122.8 281.4 0.4 0.000003 0.000452 0.000000 0.930 hsa-miR-422a 279.2 104.5 2.7 0.000004 0.000000 0.000000 0.923 hsa-miR-330-3p 213.1 443.2 0.5 0.000004 0.000522 0.000000 0.923 hsa-miR-767-5p 107.1 232.4 0.5 0.000004 0.000217 0.000001 0.922 hsa-miR-183* 195.9 87.7 2.2 0.000004 0.000001 0.000000 0.921 hsa-miR-1249 144.8 46.1 3.1 0.000004 0.000000 0.000004 0.919 hsa-miR-20b 2163.5 5665.8 0.4 0.000004 0.000002 0.000001 0.919 hsa-miR-509-3-5p 157.0 371.4 0.4 0.000004 0.000459 0.000000 0.919 hsa-miR-519b-5p 72.5 155.1 0.5 0.000004 0.000029 0.000398 0.918 hsa-miR-362-3p 449.0 167.8 2.7 0.000004 0.000004 0.000000 0.917 hsa-miR-501-5p 106.5 27.8 3.8 0.000004 0.000000 0.000002 0.916 hsa-miR-378* 103.7 29.4 3.5 0.000004 0.000000 0.000002 0.916 hsa-miR-365 160.5 65.1 2.5 0.000006 0.000000 0.000001 0.912 hsa-miR-151-3p 999.0 422.6 2.4 0.000006 0.000001 0.000000 0.909 hsa-miR-342-5p 196.8 92.1 2.1 0.000008 0.000001 0.000003 0.905 hsa-miR-328 175.4 32.3 5.4 0.000008 0.000000 0.000001 0.904 hsa-miR-181a-2* 154.8 64.7 2.4 0.000016 0.000004 0.000004 0.892 hsa-miR-518e* 88.1 196.4 0.4 0.000019 0.000452 0.000586 0.888 hsa-miR-362-5p 245.4 119.5 2.1 0.000023 0.000008 0.000001 0.884 hsa-miR-584 198.2 46.9 4.2 0.000023 0.000015 0.000008 0.883 hsa-miR-550* 808.5 313.8 2.6 0.000024 0.000026 0.000003 0.881 hsa-miR-30a 682.9 334.8 2.0 0.000027 0.000004 0.000002 0.879 hsa-miR-221* 54.3 113.8 0.5 0.000029 0.000106 0.000390 0.878 hsa-miR-361-3p 263.9 99.0 2.7 0.000033 0.000002 0.000003 0.875 hsa-miR-625 185.8 63.3 2.9 0.000037 0.000017 0.000038 0.871 hsa-miR-146a 326.8 161.8 2.0 0.000037 0.000039 0.000003 0.871 hsa-miR-214 172.3 383.4 0.4 0.000042 0.000376 0.000001 0.869 hsa-miR-106b 8639.8 18880.5 0.5 0.000044 0.000085 0.000019 0.867 hsa-miR-18a 1060.8 2560.0 0.4 0.000053 0.000742 0.000013 0.862 hsa-miR-30e* 101.7 47.8 2.1 0.000022 0.000005 0.000098 0.861 hsa-miR-125a-5p 370.8 147.4 2.5 0.000059 0.000033 0.000001 0.859 hsa-miR-142-3p 105.3 2.0 53.0 0.000082 0.000017 0.000009 0.851 hsa-miR-107 725.8 1938.9 0.4 0.000092 0.000970 0.000034 0.849 hsa-miR-20a 3254.3 7282.8 0.4 0.000134 0.000159 0.000062 0.841 hsa-miR-22* 117.7 45.0 2.6 0.000193 0.000037 0.000138 0.832 hsa-miR-199a-5p 551.4 267.9 2.1 0.000201 0.000663 0.000042 0.831 3.3 Discussion

There is a good chance for recovery o patients suffering from melanoma if the primary lesion is detected very early. For patients with stage I melanoma the overall 5-year survival rate exceeds 90% but can fall below 10% for stage III or IV melanoma. A lot of efforts were undertaken in order to identify molecular biomarkers for melanoma detection before metastasis, which is an early event during melanoma progression. Because melanoma is a very heterogeneous disease, complex biomarker profiles would be best suited to monitor high-risk patients.

MiRNAs regulate more than one third of all human genes. It is evident that changes in the miRNA expression can lead to cancer development. Complex miRNA expression profiles may reflect the molecular changes leading to melanoma progression.

In our study we investigated the miRNA expression of currently all known human miRNAs and miRNA star sequences. Analyzing the miRNA expression in peripheral blood cells combines the advantages of the ease of obtaining blood with the avoidance of surgical interventions (skin biopsies) and of CT scans. We analyzed the miRNA expression in blood cells of two independent sets of melanoma patients and compared the expression profiles with that of healthy blood donors. Here we detected 51 differentially expressed miRNAs. A total of 30 miRNAs was upregulated in blood cells of melanoma patients, whereas 21 miRNAs were downregulated. Applying SVM with a feature subset selection method we were able to differentiate melanoma patients and healthy blood donors with high accuracy (97.4%) using a set of 16 miRNAs.

Example 4 Molecular Clinical Thermometer

For the molecular clinical thermometer, an arbitrary machine learning (feature extraction/classification/regression/clustering) technique can be applied. The workflow does not depend on the applied method that can be seen as a black box.

First, a sophisticated large set of samples for the diseases to be investigated has to be measured using a larger amount of biomarkers. This set, consisting of a p×n matrix where n is the number of samples and p the number of biomarkers, is commonly denoted as training data set.

Now, a combination of feature extraction and supervised learning techniques (the process can be also carried out with slight modifications using unsupervised techniques) is applied to generate a statistical model, which describes the training data well. Here, it is essential to control the model complexity in order to avoid so-called overtraining of the statistical models. Although, in general, multi-class cases can be carried out, we focus on two class comparisons, i.e., normal versus cancer 1, normal versus cancer 2, cancer 1 versus cancer 2.

Given the trained models and a new biomarker profile, the statistical model can be used to compute the probability for each class and this new sample. Only one example are support vector machines, where the distance of a sample to the separating hyperplane can be used to estimate the class probability via a regression approach. The specificity and sensitivity can be trade-off by shifting the probability threshold (which usually should be 0.5 or 50%).

The probabilities in the previously described step can be used to generate so-called disease probability plots (DPP). These plots contain for each class and a single sample the probabilities to belong to a certain class. In detail, each class is described by a colored line of length 100 (representing a percentage range), where the lower rate is colored green (representing small probabilities) and the higher range red (higher probabilities). For each class, an arrow marks the probability for the patient and the respective disease. For class “normal” the minimal and maximal probability to be normal are shown.

The DPPs thus allow for visualizing the complex statistical evaluation in a simple and well interpretable way.

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The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of diagnosing melanoma, comprising the steps (a) determining an expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs in a biological sample from a patient, wherein said biological sample is a blood cell sample by: (i) providing capture probes, each capture probe comprising a sequence of at least partially complementary nucleotides to each of the miRNAs of the predetermined set of miRNAs and an elongation sequence, and (ii) hybridizing the miRNAs of said biological sample of (a) to the capture probes, and (iii) elongating the hybridized miRNA of step (ii) with at least one labeled nucleotide complementary to the elongation sequence, and (iv) quantifying the labeled hybridized miRNAs based on the labels or (v) obtaining cDNA samples from the biological sample of (a) by a RNA reverse transcription reaction using miRNA-specific primers, and (vi) amplifying the cDNA via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with miRNA-specific cDNA forward primers, universal reverse primers and a labeled probe complementary to at least a portion of the cDNA samples to be analyzed, and (vii) detecting the levels of miRNAs on the basis of the labeled probe, (b) comparing said expression profile to a reference expression profile, wherein the comparison of said expression profile to said reference expression profile allows for the diagnosis of melanoma, and wherein the predetermined set of miRNAs representative for melanoma comprises at least 1, 3, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 75, 100 miRNAs selected from the group consisting of: (i) the miRNAs from FIG. 30A (ii) the miRNAs from FIG. 30B (iii) the miRNAs from FIG. 32A (iv) the miRNAs from FIG. 32B (v) the miRNAs from the signatures in FIG. 33 A and (vi) the miRNAs from the signatures in FIG. 33B.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined set of miRNAs representative for melanoma comprises an miRNA or a set of miRNAs as shown in FIG. 33A or wherein the predetermined set of miRNAs representative for skin cancer comprises an miRNA or a set of miRNAs as shown in FIG. 33B.
 3. A method of diagnosing and/or predicting the state of health in a subject comprising the steps: (a) providing a RNA sample from said subject, wherein said sample is a blood cell sample, (b) providing means for determining an expression profile for a plurality of miRNA and/or other non-coding RNA molecules, wherein said means are: (i) capture probes, wherein each capture probe comprises a sequence of at least partially complementary nucleotides to each miRNA of the plurality of miRNA or other non-coding RNA molecules, and an elongation sequence, or (ii) miRNA-specific primers, universal reverse primers and labeled probes to conduct a polymerase chain reaction, (c1) determining the expression profile of a plurality of miRNAs and/or other noncoding RNAs by: (i) hybridizing the miRNAs and/or other non-coding RNA molecules in the sample of (a) with the means of (b)(i), and (ii) elongating the miRNAs and/or other non-coding RNA molecules of the sample with labeled nucleotides, and (iii) quantifying the labeled hybridized miRNA based on the label, or (c2) determining the expression profile of a plurality of miRNA and/or non-coding RNA molecules by: (i) obtaining cDNA samples by an RNA reverse transcription reaction using the miRNA-specific primers of (b)(ii), and (ii) amplifying the cDNA via polymerase chain reaction with miRNA-specific cDNA forward primers of (b)(ii) and the labeled probe of (b)(ii) complementary to at least a portion of cDNA to be analyzed, and (iii) detecting levels of miRNAs on the basis of the labeled probe, (d) providing a plurality of reference miRNA and/or non-coding RNA expression profiles obtained from a plurality of different reference subjects representing a plurality of different conditions, (e) calculating a common signature profile from a combination of at least 2 conditions, represented by the corresponding expression profiles in step (d), wherein the common signature profile is a subset of miRNAs or non-coding RNAs differentiating between the said at least 2 conditions, (f) comparing the miRNA and/or non-coding RNA profile of step (c1) or (c2) with a common signature profile of step (e), and (g) calculating the probability of said subject for the at least 2 conditions, and (h) optionally repeating steps (e), (f) and (g) for at least another common signature profile, and/or (i) optionally collecting the probability values for the particular common signature profiles to diagnose and/or predict the health state of said subject.
 4. The method according to claim 1 wherein miRNA the expression profile is determined by nucleic acid hybridization, nucleic acid amplification, polymerase extension, sequencing, mass spectroscopy or any combinations thereof.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the nucleic acid hybridisation is performed using a solid-phase nucleic acid biochip array or nucleic acid amplification.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the miRNA expression profile of said subject and the reference expression profiles and optionally the predetermined set of miRNAs are stored in a database.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the biological sample is not labeled prior to determination of the expression profile.
 8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the diagnosis comprises determining survival rate, responsiveness to drugs, monitoring the course of the disease or the therapy, staging of the disease, measuring the response of a patient to therapeutic intervention, segmentation of patients suffering from the disease, identifying of a patient who has a risk to develop the disease, predicting/estimating the occurrence, and/or predicting the response of a patient with the disease to therapeutic intervention.
 9. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of miRNA and/or other non-coding RNA molecules is between 10 and 1000 molecules.
 10. The method of claim 5, wherein the solid-phase nucleic acid biochip array comprises a microarray, beads, or in situ hybridization.
 11. The method of claim 5, wherein the nucleic acid amplification is performed via real-time PCR (RT-PCR) or quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR).
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined set of miRNAs representative for melanoma comprises an miRNA selected from the group consisting of hsa-miR-1274a, hsa-miR-593*, and hsa-miR-148a.
 13. The method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined set of miRNAs representative for melanoma comprises an miRNA selected from the group consisting of hsa-miR-1274a, hsa-miR-593*, and hsa-miR-148a.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the blood cell sample is selected from erythrocytes, leukocytes, thrombocytes, or a combination thereof.
 15. A method of diagnosing melanoma, comprising the steps of: (a) determining an expression profile of a predetermined set of miRNAs in a biological sample from a patient, wherein said biological sample is a blood cell sample wherein said blood cell sample consists of a mixture of erythrocytes, leukocytes and thrombocytes, and (b) comparing said expression profile to a reference expression profile, wherein the comparison of said expression profile to said reference expression profile allows for the diagnosis of melanoma, and wherein the predetermined set of miRNAs representative for melanoma comprises at least 1, 3, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 75, or 100 miRNAs selected from the group consisting of: (i) the miRNAs from FIG. 30A (ii) the miRNAs from FIG. 30B (iii) the miRNAs from FIG. 32A (iv) the miRNAs from FIG. 32B (v) the miRNAs from the signatures in FIG. 33A and (vi) the miRNAs from the signatures in FIG. 33B, and wherein the miRNAs of the predetermined set of miRNAs were obtained by: (c) measuring a plurality of miRNAs in a blood cell sample wherein said blood cell sample consists of a mixture of erythrocytes, leukocytes and thrombocytes, and (d) estimating the diagnostic value and the redundancy of each of said single miRNA biomarkers, and (e) defining a plurality of subsets of multiple miRNA biomarkers, (f) estimating the diagnostic value of each of said plurality of subsets, and (g) defining the predetermined set of miRNAs from relevant subsets of multiple miRNA biomarkers that are tailored to for diagnosing melanoma with high diagnostic accuracy, specificity and sensitivity.
 16. The method of claim 1, further comprising surgically removing a primary tumor from a patient diagnosed with melanoma. 